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Macmillan's English Classics 



A SERIES OF ENGLISH TEXTS EDITED FOR 
USE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS, WITH 
CRITICAL INTRODUCTIONS, 
NOTES, ETC. • 



16mo. Flexible 25c. each 

Macaulay's Essay on Addison 
Macaulay's Essay on Milton 
Tennyson's The Princess 
Eliot's Silas Marner 
Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner 
Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans 
Burke s Speech on Conciliation 
Pope's Homer's Iliad 
Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield 
Shakespeare's Macbeth 
Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley 
Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice 



OTHERS TO FOLLOW 



SHAKESPEARE'S 
MACBETH 



&&& 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



MACBETH 



EDITED WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION 
BY 

CHARLES W. FRENCH 

\ 

PRINCIPAL OF THE HYDE PARK HIGH SCHOOL 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



Wtfo gork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd. 

1898 
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All rights reserved 



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26841 



COPTKIGHT, 1898, 

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 










NortoooH iPress 

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Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



I^i 



I I S* t—> 



INTRODUCTION 



The Historical Basis of the Play 

Macbeth is the only one of Shakespeare's plays 
which is based upon episodes in Scottish history. 
While it is not in any sense an historical drama, the 
materials which form the groundwork of the plot were 
taken from Holinshed's Chronicles, to which Shake- 
speare went for the themes of no less than ten of his 
plays. While Macbeth is to be studied mainly for its 
tragic interest and its moral lessons, it will be inter- 
esting for the student to compare the bare historic 
materials with the rich life history into which the 
artist-poet has elaborated them. For this purpose the 
more important passages from Holinshed which Shake- 
speare made use of are given below. 

Duncan, king of Scotland, who is introduced to us in 
the first act, succeeded his grandfather, Malcolm II., 
in 1031. The historic time embraced in the play be- 
gins in 1040, when Duncan was slain, and ends with 



vi INTRODUCTION 

Macbeth's defeat by Si ward, on July 27, 1054. The 
historic Macbeth, however, escaped from the battle 
and was killed in August, 1057. 

Act I, Scene II : 

" After Malcolme succeeded his nephue Duncane 
the sonne of his daughter Beatrice : for Malcome had 
two daughters, the one which was this Beatrice, being 
given in marriage with one Abbanath Crinen, a man 
of great nobilitie, and thane of the lies and west parts 
of Scotland, bare of that marriage the foresaid Dun- 
cane ; the other, called Doada, was married unto Smell, 
the thane of Glammis, by whom she had issue one 
Makbeth a valiant gentleman, and one that if he had 
not beene somewhat cruell of nature, might have 
beene thought most worthy the governement of a 
realme. On the other part, Duucane was so soft and 
gentle of nature, that the people wished the inclina- 
tions and maners of these two cousins to have beene 
so tempered and interchangeblie bestowed betwixt 
them, that where the one had too much of clemencie, 
and the other of crueltie, the meane vertex betwixt 
these two extremities might have reigned by indiffer- 

1 In the following pages the selections, all of which are taken 
from the edition of Holinshed's Chronicles, are arranged by acts 
and scenes in regular order. 



INTRODUCTION vii 

ent partition in them both, so should Duncane have 
proved a courtly king, and Makbeth an excellent cap- 
teine. The beginning of Duncane's reign was verie 
quiet and peaceable, without anie notable trouble ; but 
after it was perceived how negligent he was in pun- 
ishing offendors, manie misruled persons tooke occa- 
sion thereof to trouble the peace and quiet state of the 
commonwealth by seditious commotions which first had 
their beginnings in this wise. 

" Banquho, thane of Lochquhaber, of whom the house 
of the Stewards is descended, the which by order of 
linage hath now for a long time inioied the crowne of 
Scotland, even till these our daies, as begathered the 
finances due to the king, and further punished some- 
what sharpelie such as were notorious offendors, being 
assailed by a number of rebels inhabiting in that coun- 
trie, and spoiled of the monie and all other things, had 
much adoo to get awaie with his life, after he had re- 
ceived sundrie grievous wounds amongst them. Yet 
escaping their hands, after hee was somewhat recov- 
ered of his hurts, and was able to ride, he repaired to 
the court, where making his complaint to the king in 
nost earnest wise, he purchased at length that the of- 
fendors were sent for by a sergeant at amies, to appeare 
to make answer unto such matters as should be laid to 
their charge : but they augmenting their mischiefous 
act with a more wicked deed, after they had misused 



Vlli INTRODUCTION 

the messenger with sundrie kinds of reproches, they 
finallie slue him also. 

"Then doubting not but for such contemptuous 
demeanor against the kings regall authoritie, they 
should be invaded by all the power the king could 
make, Makdowald one of great estimation among them, 
making first a confederacie with his neerest friends 
and kinsmen, tooke upon him to be chiefe capteine of 
all such rebels as would stand against the king, in 
maintenance of their grievous offenses latelie com- 
mitted against him. Manie slanderous words also, 
and railing tants this Makdowald uttered against his 
prince, calling him a fainte-hearted milke sop, more 
meet to govern a sort of idle moonks in some cloister, 
than to have the rule of such valiant and hardie men 
of wane as the Scots were. He used also such subtill 
persuasions and forged allurements, that in a small 
time he had gotten togither a mightie power of men : 
for out of the western lies there came unto him a 
great multitude of people, offering themselves to assist 
him in that rebellious quareli, and out of Ireland in 
hope of the spoile came no small number of Kernes and 
Gallow glasses, offering gladly to serve under him, 
whither it should please him to lead them. 

" Makdowald thus having a mighty puissance about 
him, incountered with such of the king's people as 
were sent against him into Lochquhaber, and discom- 



INTRODUCTION IX 

fiting them, by mere force took their Capteine Mal- 
colme, and after the end of the battell smote off his 
head. This overthrow being notifed to the king, did 
put him in woonderful feare, by reason of his small 
skill in warlike affaires. Calling therefore his nobles 
to a couneell, he asked of them their best advise for 
the subduing Makdowald and the other rebels. Here 
in sundrie heads (as ever it happeneth) were sundrie 
opinions, which they uttered according to everie man 
his skill. At length Makbeth speaking much against 
the king's softnes, and overmuch slacknesse in pun- 
ishing offendors, whereby they had much time to as- 
semble togither, he promised, notwithstanding if the 
charge were committed unto him and unto Banquho, 
so to order the matter, that the rebels should be shortly 
vanquished and quite put downe, and that not so much 
as one of them should be found to make resistance 
within the countrie. 

" And even so it came to pass : for being sent footh 
with a new power, at his entriug into Lochquhaber, 
the fame of his coming put the enemies in such feare, 
that a great number of them stale secretlie awaie from 
their capteine Makdowald, who nevertheless inforced 
thereto, gave battell unto Makbeth, with the residue 
which remained with him : but being overcome, and 
fleeing for refuge into a castell (within the which his 
wife and children were inclosed) at length when he 



x INTRODUCTION 

saw how lie could neither defend the hold anie longer 
against his enemies, nor yet upon surrender be suffered 
to depart with life saved, hee first slue his wife and 
children and lastlie himselfe, least if he had yielded 
simplie, he should have beene executed in most cruell 
wise for an example to other. Makbeth entring into 
the castell by the gates, as then set open, found the 
carcasse of Makdowald lieing dead there amongst the 
residue of the slaine bodies, which when he beheld, 
remitting no peece of his cruell nature with that piti- 
full sight, he caused the head to be cut off, and set 
upon a poles end, and so sent it as a present to the 
king. The headlesse trunk he commanded to be hoong 
up upon a high paire of gallows. . . . Thus was jus- 
tice and law restored againe to the old accustomed 
course, by the diligent means of Makbeth. Immedi- 
ately whereupon woord came that Sueno, king of Nor- 
way, was arrived in Fife with a puissant armie, to 
subdue the whole realme of Scotland." 

The army raised to resist Sweno was divided into 
three sections, commanded by Macbeth, Banquo, and 
Duncan. The events of the subsequent campaign 
which resulted in. the defeat of Sweno are not drama- 
tized. 

" Shortlie after happened a strange and uncouth 
woiicler, which afterward was the cause of much 
trouble in the realme of Scotland, as ye shall after 



INTRODUCTION xi 

heare. It fortuned as Makbeth and Banquho iournied 
towards Forxes where the king then laie, they went 
sporting by the waie togither without other companie, 
save onlie themselves, passing through the woods and 
fields, when suddenlie in the middest of a lannd, there 
met them three women in strange and wild apparell, 
resembling creatures of elder world, whome when they 
attentively beheld, woondering much at the sight, the 
first of them spake and said : ' All haile, Makbeth, 
thane of Glammis ! ' (for he had latelie entered unto 
that office and dignity by the death of his father, Si- 
nell). The second of them said: ' Haile, Makbeth, 
thane of Cawder ! ' But the third said : ' All haile, 
Makbeth, that heereafter shal be king of Scotland ! ' 
" Then Banquho : ' What manner of women ' (saith 
he) 'are you that seeme so little favorable unto me, 
whereas to my fellow heere, besides high offices, ye 
assign also the kingdome, appointing foorth nothing 
for me at all ? ' ' Yes ' (saith the first of them) ' we 
promise greater benefits unto thee, than unto him, for 
he shall reigne indeed, but with an unluckie end: 
neither shall he leave anie issue behind him to suc- 
ceed in his place, where contrarily thou in deed shall 
not reigne at all, but of thee those shall be born which 
shall govern the Scotish kingdom by long order of 
continuall descent.' Herewith the foresaid women 
vanished immediatelie out of their sight. This was 



xii IXTR OD UC TION 

reputed at the first but some vaine fantasticall illusion 
by Makbeth and Banquho, insomuch that Banquho 
would call Makbeth in iest, king of Scotland; and 
Makbeth againe would call him in sport likewise, the 
father of manie kings. But afterwards the common 
opinion was, that these women were either the weird 
sisters, that is (as ye would say) the goddesses of 
destinie, or else some nymphs or feiries, indued with 
knowledge of prophesie by their necromanticall science, 
bicause everything came to pass as they had spoken. 
For shortlie after the thane of Cawder being con- 
demned at Fores of treason against the king com- 
mitted; his lands, livings, and offices were given of 
the king's liberalise to Makbeth. 

" The same night after, at supper, Banquho jested 
with him, and said: 'Now Makbeth, thou hast ob- 
teined those things which the two former sisters 
prophesied, there remaineth onelie for thee to pur- 
chase that which the third said should come to pass.' 
Whereupon Makbeth revolving the thing in his mind, 
began even then to devise how he might attein to the 
kingdome : but yet he thought with himselfe that he 
must tarie a time, which should advance him thereto 
(by the divine providence) as it had come to passe in 
his former preferment. But shortlie after it chanced 
that King Duncane, having two sonnes by his wife 
which was the daughter of Siward earle of North- 



INTRODUCTION xm 

umberland, he made the elder of them, called Mal- 
colm e, Prince of Cumberland, as it were thereby to 
appoint him his successor in the kingdome, immedi- 
atelie after his deceasse. Makbeth sore troubled here- 
with, for that he saw by this means his hope sore 
hindered (where, by the old lawes of the real me, the 
ordinance was, that if he that should succeed were 
not of able age to take charge upon himself e, he that 
was next of blood unto him should be admitted) he 
began to take counsell how he might usurp the king- 
dom by force, having a just quarrell so to doo (as he 
tooke the matter) for that Duncane did what in him 
laie to defraud him of all maner of title and claim e, 
which he might in time to come, pretend unto the 
crowne. 

" The woords of the three weird sisters also (of whom 
before ye have heard) greatlie incouraged him hereunto, 
but speciallie his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the 
thing as she. that was verie ambitious, burning in un- 
quenchable desire to beare the name of a queene. At 
length, therefore, communicating his purposed intent 
with his trustie friends, amongst whome Banquho was 
the chiefest, upon confidence of their promised aid, he 
slew the king at Enverus, or (as some say), at Botgo- 
suane, in the sixt yeare of his reigne. Then having a 
company about him of such as he had made privie 
to his enterprise, he caused himselfe to be proclaimed 



xi V INTROD UCTION 

king and foortliwith went unto Scone, where (by com- 
mon consent) he received the investiture of the king- 
dome according to the accustomed maner. The bodie of 
Duncane was first conveied to Elgin, and buried there 
in kinglie wise ; but afterwards it was removed and 
conveied unto Colmekill, and there laid in a sepulture 
among his predecessors, in the yeare after the birth of 
our Saviour, 1046." (This date should probably be 
1040.) 

In the Chronicles of Holinshed no details of the 
murder of Duncan are given. It is probable that 
Shakespeare secured his materials for this scene from 
Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duff by 
Donwald, which is as follows : — 

"Donwald conceived such an inward malice towards 
the king (though he showed it not outwardlie at first) 
that the same continued still boiling in his stomach, 
and ceased not, till through setting on of his wife, and 
in revenge of such unthankfulnesse, he found meanes to 
murther the king within the aforesaid castell of Fores 
where he used to sojourne. For the king being in that 
countrie, was accustomed to lie most commonlie within 
the same castell, having a speciall trust in Donwald, as 
a man whom he never suspected. 

" But Donwald, not forgetting the reproch which his 
linage had sustained by the execution of those his 
kinsmen, whome the king for a spectacle to the people 



INTRODUCTION XV 

had caused to be hanged, could not but show manifest 
tokens of great griefe at home amongst his familie : 
which his wife perceiving, ceased not to travell with 
him, till she understood what the cause was of his dis- 
pleasure, which at length when she had learned by 
his owne relation, she as one that bore no lesse malice 
in hir heart towards the king, for the like cause in hir 
behalfe, than hir husband did for his friends, counselled 
him (sith the king oftentimes used to lodge in his house 
without anie gard about him, other than the garrison 
of the castell, which was wholie at his commandment) 
to make him awaie, and showed him the meanes whereby 
he might soonest accomplish it. 

" Donwald thus being the more kindled in wrath by 
the words of his wife, determined to follow hir advise 
in the execution of so heinous an act. Whereupon 
devising with him self e for awhile, which way he might 
best accomplish his curssed intent, at length got op- 
portunitie and sped his purpose as followeth. It 
chanced that the king on the daie before he purposed 
to depart foorth from the castell was long in his ora- 
torie at his praiers, and there continued until it was 
late at night. At the last, comming foorth, he called 
such afore him as had faithfullie served him in pur- 
sute and apprehension of the rebels, and giving them 
heartie thanks, he bestowed honorable gifts among 
them, of the which number Donwald was one, as he 



xvi INTR OB UCTION 

that had beene ever accounted a most faithf nil servant 
of the king. 

" At length, having talked with them a long time he 
got him into his privie chamber, onelie with two of his 
chamberlains, who, having brought him to bed, came 
foorth againe, and then fell to banketting with Don- 
wald and his wife, who had prepared diverse delicate 
dishes, and sundrie sorts of drinks for their reire sup- 
per or collation, whereat they sate up so long till they 
had charged their stomachs with such full gorges, that 
their heads were no sooner got to the pillc *r, but asleepe 
they were so fast, that a man might have remooved the 
chamber over them, sooner than to have awakened them 
out of their droonken sleepe. 

" Then Donwald, though he abhorred the act great- 
lie in heart, yet through instigation of his wife he 
called foure of his servants unto him (whom he had 
made privie to his wicked intent before, and framed 
to his purpose with large gifts) and now declaring 
unto them, after what sort they should work the feat, 
they gladlie obeied his instructions, and speedilie going 
about the murther, they enter the chamber (in which 
the king laie) a little before cocks crow, where they 
secretlie cutt his throte as he laie sleeping without anie 
buskling at all : and immediatelie by a postern gate 
they carried foorth the dead bodie into the fields, and 
throwing it upon a horsse there provided readie for 



INTRODUCTION XVli 

that purpose, they convey it to a place, about two 
miles distant from the castell, where they staied and 
got certain labourers to helpe them to turne the course 
of a little river running through the fields there, and 
digging a deepe hole in the chanell, they burie the 
bodie in the same, ramming it up with stones and 
gravell so closelie, that setting the water in the right 
course againe, no man could perceive that anything 
had been newlie digged there. This they did by order 
appointed them by Donwald as it is reported, for that 
the bodie should not be found, and by bleeding (when 
Donwald should be present) declare him to be guiltie 
of the murther. For such an opinion men have that the 
dead corps of anie man being slaine, will bleed abun- 
dantlie if the murtherer be present. But for what 
consideration soever they buried him there, they had 
no sooner finished the work, but that they slue them 
whose helpe they used herein, and streightwaies there- 
upon fled into Orknee. 

" Donwald, about the time that the murther was in 
dooing, got him amongst them that kept the watch, 
and so continued in companie with them all the resi- 
due of the night. But in the morning when the noise 
was raised in the kings chamber how the king was 
slaine, his bodie conveied awaie, and the bed all be- 
raied with bloud ; he with the watch ran thither, as 
though he had known nothing of the matter, and 



XV111 IXTRODUCTION 

breaking into the chamber, and finding cakes of blond 
in the bed, and on the floore about the sides of it, he 
foorthwith sine the chamberleins, as guiltie of that 
heinous murther, and then like a mad man running 
to and fro, he ransacked everie corner within the 
castell, as though it had been to have seene if he 
might have found either the bodie, or anie of the mur- 
therers hid in anie privie place : but at lengthe corn- 
ming to the posterne gate, and finding it open, he 
burdened the chamberleins, whome he had slaine, with 
all the fault, they having the keies of the gates com- 
mitted to their keeping all the night, and therefore it 
could not be otherwise (said he) but they were of 
counsell in committing of that most detestable murther. 

" Finallie, such was his over earnest diligence in the 
severe inquisition and trial of the offenders heerein, 
that some of the lords began to mislike the matter, 
and to smell foorth the shrewd tokens, that he should 
not be altogither cleare himselfe. But for so much as 
they were in that countrie, where he had the whole 
rule, what by reason of his friends and authoritie to- 
gither, they doubted to utter what they thought, till 
time and place should better serve thereunto, and 
heere upon got them awaie everie man to his home. 

"Thus might he seeme happie to all men, having 
the love both of his lords and commons: but yet to 
himselfe he seemed most unhappie as that he could 



INTRODUCTION XIX 

not but still live in continuall feare, least his wicked 
practise concerning the death of Malcolme Duffe should 
come to light and knowledge of the world. For so 
commeth it to passe, that such as are pricked in con- 
science for anie secret offense committed, have ever 
an unquiet mind. And (as the fame goeth) it chanced 
that a voice was heard as he was in bed in the night- 
time to take his reste, uttering unto him these or the 
like words in effect : * Thinke not, Kenneth that the 
wicked slaughter of Malcolm Duffe, by thee con- 
trived, is kept secret from the knowledge of the eter- 
nall God : thou art he that didst conspire the innocents 
death, enterprising by traitorous means to doo that to 
thy neighbor, which thou wouldst have revenged by a 
craell punishment in anie of thy subjects, if it had 
been offered thyselfe. It shall therefore come to passe 
that both thou thyselfe, and thy issue, through the 
iust vengeance of Almighty God, shall suffer woorthie 
punishment, to the infamie of thy house and familie 
for evermore. For even at this present, are there in 
hand secret practises to dispatch both thee and thy 
offspring out of the Avaie, that other may inioy this 
kingdome which thou doost indeavour to assure unto 
thine issue.' 

"The king with this voice being stricken with great 
dread and terror, passed that night without anie sleep 
comming in his eies. 



XX INTRODUCTION 

"Malcolme Cammore and Donald Barre, the so^„ 
of king Duncane, for feare of their lives (which they 
might well know that Makbeth would seeke to bring 
to end for his more sure confirmation in the estate) 
fled into Cumberland, where Malcolme remained, till 
time that Saint Edward the son of Ethelred recovered 
the dominion of England from the Danish Power, the 
which Edward received Malcolme by waie of most 
f riendlie enterteinment : but Donald passed over into 
Ireland, where he was tenderly cherished by the king 
of that land." 

Act II, Scene IV 

" For the space of six moneths togither, after this 
heinous murther [that of King Duff] thus committed, 
there appeared no sunne by day, nor moone by night 
in anie part of the realme, but still was the sky 
covered with continuall clouds, and sometimes such 
outragious winds arose, with lightenings and tempests, 
that the people were in great feare of present destruc- 
tion. 

" Monstrous sights also that were seene within the 
Scotish kingdome that yeere were these: horsses in 
Louthian, being of singular beautie and swiftnesse, 
did eate their owne flesh, and would in no wise taste 
anie other meate. . . . There was a sparhawke also 
\ 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

strangled by an owle. Neither was it anie less woon- 
der that the sunne, as before is said, was continual! ie 
covered with clouds for six moneths space, But all 
men understood that the abbominable murther of king 
Duff was the cause heereof." 

The rapid action of the play did not allow Shake- 
speare to show Macbeth in any other light than that 
of a merciless tyrant, abhorred of all men and passing 
rapidly from one crime to another. The following 
passage shows that a part at least of Macbeth's reign 
was characterized by a just though severe rule, during 
which the country prospered. 

" Makbeth after the departure thus of Duncans 
sonnes, used great liberality towards the nobles of 
the realme, thereby to win their favour, and when he 
saw that no man went about to trouble him, he set 
his whole intention to maintein iustice, and to punish 
all enormities and abuses, which had chanced through 
the feeble and slothful administration of Duncane. 
Makbeth showing himself thus a most diligent punisher 
of all iniuries and wrongs attempted by anie disordered 
people within his realme, was counted the sure defense 
and buckler of innocent people : and heerto he also 
applied his whole indeavor, to cause young men to 
exercise themselves in vertuous maners, and men of 
the church to attend to their divine service according 
to their vocations. " 



XXll INTRODUCTION 

Act III, Scene III 

'•'But this was but a counterfet zeale of equitie 
observed by him. Partlie against his naturall inclina- 
tions, to purchase therebie the favour of the people. 
Shortlie after, he began to shew what he was, instead 
of equitie, practising crueltie. For the prick of con- 
science (as it chanceth ever in tyrants, and such as 
attain to anie estate by unrighteous means) caused 
him ever to feare, least he should be served of the 
same cup, as he had ministred to his predecessor. 
The woords also of the three weird sisters would not 
out of his mind, which as they promised him the 
kingdome, so likewise did they promise it at the same 
time to the posterite of Banquho. He willed there- 
fore the same Banquho, with his sonne named Fleance, 
to come to a supper that he had prepared for them ; 
which was indeed as he had devised, present death at 
the hands of certeine murderers, whom he hired to 
execute that deed ; appointing them to meet with the 
same Banquho and his sonne without the palace, as 
they returned to their lodgings, and there to slea 
them, so that he would not have his house slandered, 
but that in time to come he might cleare himselfe, 
if anie thing were laid to his charge upon anie sus- 
picion that might arise. 

" It chanced yet, by the benefit of the darke night, 



INTRODUCTION XXlll 

that, although the father were slaine, the sonne yet. 
by the help of almightie God rescuing him to better 
fortune, escaped that danger ; and after having some 
inkeling (by the admonition of some friends which 
he had in the court) how his life was sought no lesse 
than his fathers, who was slaine not by chance-medlie 
(as by the handling of the matter Makbeth would 
have had it appeare) but even upon a prepensed de- 
vise : whereupon to avoid further peril he fled into 
Wales." 

Act III, Scene VI 

Macbeth requests Macduff to personally superintend 
the building of Dunsinane Castle, which the latter 
abruptly refuses to do. This may be the affront which 
Macbeth receives from the answer brought him by the 
" cloudy messenger." 

Act IV, Scene I 

Angered by the Thane of Fife's refusal to assist 
personally at the building of Dunsinane Castle, Mac- 
beth could not " afterwards abide to looke upon the 
said Macduffe, either for that he thought his puissance 
over great ; either else for that he had learned of cer- 
teine wizzards, in whose words he put great confidence, 
(for that the prophesie had happened so right, which 
the three faries or weird sisters had declared unto 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

him,) how that he ought to take heed of Makduffe, 
who in time to come should seek to destroie him. 

"And suerlie here upon had he put Macduffe to 
death, but that a certein witch, whome he had in great 
trust, had told that he should never be slaine with 
man born of anie woman, nor vanquished till the 
wood of Bernane came to the castell of Dunsinane. 
By this prophesie Makbeth put all feare out of his 
heart, supposing he might doo what he would, without 
anie feare to be punished for the same, for by the one 
prophesie he believed it was impossible for anie man 
to vanquish him, and by the other impossible to slea 
him. This vaine hope caused him to doo manie 
outragious things, to the greevous oppression of his 
subjects. At length Makduffe, to avoid perill of life, 
purposed with himselfe to passe into England, to pro- 
cure Malcolme Cammore to claime the crowne of Scot- 
land. But this was not so secretlie devised by 
Makduffe, but that Makbeth had knowledge given 
him thereof : for kings (as is said) have sharpe sight 
like unto Lynx, and long ears like unto Midas. For 
Makbeth had in every noblemans house, one slie fel- 
low or other in fee with him, to reveal all that was 
said or doone within the same, by which slight he op- 
pressed the most part of the nobles of his realnie." 



IXTRODUVTIOX 



Act IV, Scene II 



"Immediatelie then, being advertised whereabouts 
Makduffe went, he came hastily with a great power 
into Fife, and foorthwith besieged the castell where 
Makduffe dwelled, trusting to have found him therein. 
They that kept the house, without any resistance, 
opened the gates, and suffered him to enter, mistrust- 
ing no evil. But nevertheless Makbeth most cruellie 
caused the wife and children of Makduffe, with all 
others whom he found in that castell, to be slaine. 
Also he confiscated the goods of Makduffe, proclaimed 
him traitor, and confined him out of all the parts of 
his realme ; but Makduffe was alreadie escaped out of 
danger, and gotten into England unto Malcolme Cam- 
more, to trie what purchase hee might make by means 
of his support, to revenge the slaughter so cruellie 
executed on his wife, his children, and other friends." 

Act IV, Scene III 

"The dialogue between Macduff and Malcolm is 
freely paraphrased by Shakespeare. In Holinshed 
the dialogue contains four clauses ; Malcolm's confes- 
sions of (1) incontinence, (2) avarice, (3) faithless- 
ness — each clause including Macduff's answers, and 
(4) Malcolm's disavowal of his self-detraction." 



XXVI INTRODUCTION 

Act V, Scenes II— VIII 

" Soone after, Makduffe, repairing to the borders of 
Scotland, addressed his letters with secret dispatch 
unto the nobles of the realme, declaring how Malcolme 
was confederate with him, to come hastilie to Scot- 
land to claime the crowne, and therefore he required 
them, sith he was right inheritor thereto, to assist 
him with their powers to recover the same out of the 
hands of the wrongfull usurper. 

" In the meantime Malcolme purchased much favor 
at king Edward's hands, that old Siward earle of 
Northumberland was appointed with ten thousand 
men to go with him into Scotland, to support him in 
this enterprise, for recoverie of his right. After these 
newes were spread abroad in Scotland, the nobles 
drew into two severall factions, the one taking part 
with Makbeth, and the other with Malcolme. Heere- 
upon insued oftentimes sundrie bickerings, and di- 
verse light skirmishes ; for those that were of 
Malcolmes side would not ieopard to come with their 
enimies in a pight field, till his comming out of Eng- 
land to their support. But after that Makbeth per- 
ceived his enimies power to increase, by such aid as 
came to them foorth of England with his adversarie 
Malcolm, he recoiled back into Fife, there purposing 
to abide in camp fortified, at the castell of Dunsinane, 



Z/V TR OD UC TION XXV n 

and to fight with his enimies, if they went to pursue 
him ; howbeit some of his friends advised him, that 
it should be best for him, either to make some agree- 
ment with Malcolme, or else to flee with all speed into 
the lies, and to take his treasure with him, to the 
end he might wage sundrie great princes of the realme 
to take his part, and reteine strangers, in whome he 
might better trust than in his owne subjects, which 
stale dailie from him ; but he had such confidence in 
his prophesies, that he beleeved he should never be 
vanquished, till Birnane wood were brought to Dunsi- 
nane; nor yet to be slaine with anie man that should 
be or was born of anie Avoman. 

"Malcolme, following hastilie after Makbeth, came 
the night before the battell unto Birnane wood ; and 
when his armie had rested awhile there to refresh 
them, he commanded everie man to get a bough of 
some tree or other of that wood in his hand, as big as 
he might beare, and to march foorth therewith in such 
wise, that on the next morrow they might come closelie 
and without sight in this manner within view of his 
enemies. On the morrow when Makbeth beheld them 
commingin this sort, he first marvelled what the matter 
ment, but in the end remembered himself e that the 
prophesie which he had heard long before that time, of 
the comming of Birnane wood to Dunsinane castell, was 
likelie now to be fulfilled. Neverthelesse he brought 



xxv in INTRODUCTION 

his men in order of battell, and exhorted them to do 
valiantlie ; howbeit his enemies had scarcelie cast from 
them their boughs when Makbeth, perceiving their 
numbers, betooke him streict to flight, whom Mak- 
duffe pursued with great hatred even till he came to 
Lunfannaine, where Makbeth, perceiving that Mak- 
duffe was hard at his backe, leapt beside his horsse, 
saieng : ' Thou traitor, what meaneth it that thou 
shouldest thus in vaine follow me that am not ap- 
pointed to be slaine by anie creature that is borne of 
a woman ? Come on therefore, and receive thy re- 
ward which thou hast deserved for thy paines ! ' and 
therewithal he lifted up his swoord, thinking to have 
slaine him. 

" But Makduffe, quicklie avoiding from his horsse, 
yer he came at him, answered (with naked swoord in 
his hand) saieng : ' It is true, Makbeth, and now shall 
thine insatiable cruel tie have an end, for I am even he 
that thy wizzards have told thee of ; who was never 
born of my mother, but ripped out of her wombe ' : 
therewithall he stepped unto him, and sine him in the 
place. Then cutting his head from his shoulders 
he set it upon a pole, and brought it unto Malcolme. 
This was the ende of Makbeth, after he had reigned 
17 yeeres over the Scotishmen. In the beginning of 
his reigne he accomplished mauie woorthie acts, verie 
profitable to the common-wealth but afterward, by 



INTRODUCTION XXIX 

illusion of the divell, he defamed the same with most 
terrible crueltie. He was slaine in the yeere of the 
incarnation, 1057, and in the 16 yeere of king Ed- 
wards reigne over the Englishmen." 

Cf. Shakespeare's "Holinsbed." The Chronicle and the Histor- 
ical Plays Compared, by W. G. Boswell-Stone. 



DATE OF COMPOSITION 

Shakespeare's works were first printed in small 
quarto volumes, each containing a single play, which 
began to appear as early as 1G94. The text for the 
most of these quartos was obtained fraudulently 
from actors' copies, and was neither complete nor 
accurate. They were nearly all published without 
the author's permission and contrary to his wishes. 
Sixteen plays had been issued in this form before 
1623, in which year the first collection of Shake- 
speare's works was published by his friends and as- 
sociates, John Heming and Henry Condell. This 
edition is known as the first folio. Subsequent edi- 
tions known as the second, third, and fourth folios, 
respectively, were published in 1632, 1663, and 1664, 
and 1685. 

The first folio bears the following: title : 



XXX INTR OD UCTION 

"Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, 
Tragedies. Published according to the True Original 
Copies, London ; Published by Isaac Taggard and Ed 
Blount, 1623." 

In this collection eighteen plays were printed for 
the first time and those that had been issued in the 
quartos appeared now for the first time in authentic 
form. 

An incomplete edition of Macbeth had been pub- 
lished perhaps as early as 1610, but it first appeared 
in its present form in the folio of 1623. The exact 
date of its composition cannot be ascertained with 
certainty, but it was undoubtedly one of Shakespeare's 
later plays and is known to have been acted in 1610. 
From internal evidence it seems certain that it could 
not have been written earlier than 1601, and the 
weight of authority is in favor of 1605 or 1606. 



THE THEME 



The tragedy of Macbeth may be justly ranked as 
Shakespeare's greatest work. It is true that it lacks 
the careful elaboration which characterizes the most 
of his other plays, and is devoid of those finer touches 
of sentiment and playful humor of which he was so 



INTR OB UC TION XX xi 

eminently the master. But here his purpose is too 
serious, and the motive of the play is too stern and 
insistent to permit of any digression. From begin- 
ning to end it is a profound and philosophical study 
of the effect of sin upon human life and its resulting 
degradation and suffering. Yet it is more than this, 
for the deadly issues of evil-doing are worked out in 
all their fearful reality, and temptation with its ever- 
deepening shades weaves itself into the fabric of 
human life, before our very eyes. 

The poet has given us no fancy picture, but with a 
stern and unfaltering purpose has created for all man- 
kind an episode of the truest life history. The most 
consummate traitor of all the ages is no more a real 
personality than is Macbeth, and no more impressive 
moral lesson is taught on the pages of the Avorld's lit- 
erature, than that which comes to us in this the great- 
est of English dramas. 

So serious a purpose admits of no trifling or delay, 
hence the action of the play is rapid. Its current of 
human passion flows swift and black, and, as we follow 
its rapidly descending course, we shrink with horror 
from the scenes of violence and of human woe which 
are disclosed, but a relentless fascination bids us follow 
on until its dark waters hurl themselves into the final 
ab}^ss of desolation and ruin. So intense and unabat- 
ing is the interest that the sympathies and emotions 



XXX11 INTRODUCTION 

of the reader are often subjected to a severe and almost 
painful strain. 

The one absorbing subject for study and meditation 
in Macbeth is to be found in its ethical content. Other 
plays may be studied from literary or critical stand- 
points, but here the moral lesson is of such surpassing 
importance that all other considerations sink into com- 
parative insignificance. The mechanism and move- 
ment of the play and its vocabulary should be given 
only sufficient attention to disclose the artistic skill 
of the poet, and to make his thoughts luminous. 

Macbeth should be taught and studied as the most 
powerful chapter in literature upon the birth and de- 
velopment of evil in the human heart. The process 
is complete in detail from the first yielding to tempta- 
tion until the nature of its victim becomes wholly 
perverted, and the punishment which he has invited 
descends upon him. Upon this central theme all the 
lights and shadows of real life are turned. With 
consummate art the poet makes his purpose dominate 
every detail. There is the background of innocence 
upon which the shadow of sin is cast. There is the 
environment of peaceful nature, in the midst of which 
deeds of tumultuous violence or of secret destruction 
are wrought. There are sunny skies, which shine 
down upon dark passions and cruel ambition ; and 
virtuous natures which forsake purity, and abandon 



INTRODUCTION xxxill 

themselves to vice and sin. But dominating them all 
the voice of the prophet never ceases its proclamation, 
"The wages of sin is death." 

Nowhere is Shakespeare's analysis of human char- 
acter more keen and exhaustive. Not content with 
tracing the outward manifestations of guilt and its 
human punishment he penetrates the innermost cham- 
bers of life, and discloses the purposes and motives 
which dwell therein. The gradual loss of reputation, 
influence, and honor, and the gathering power of ven- 
geance are but the manifestations of a more fearful 
process which is being wrought in the heart, and is 
reaching out through all the functions and relations 
of life. With unmistakable clearness he shows that 
the real punishment of the criminal is not that which 
is meted out to him by the hand of man. This may be 
painful, humiliating, terrible, but it is soon over. His 
true punishment is that which is worked by his own 
hand into his own life and character for all eternity ; 
a degradation and perversion of. nature which he can 
never struggle against successfully. A man who yields 
to temptation and commits a crime may conceal it from 
all human knowledge ; but he has planted the seeds of 
a retribution in his own breast from which he cannot 
escape. 

Macbeth's punishment was not inflicted by the 
hand of Macduff, who slew him. This was but an 



XXXIV INTRODUCTION 

incident in his career. For years he had suffered 
the pangs of a moral deterioration, which were worse 
a thousandfold than the most cruel death. So power- 
ful are these sufferings, inflicted by an outraged con- 
science, depicted by the poet that the indignation and 
horror excited by his crimes almost give way to pity 
for his utter wretchedness. 

Lady Macbeth, the guilty partner in her husband's 
first crime, illustrates the same great principle. She 
was less imaginative and better able to conceal her 
emotions, yet she gives many a hint of the remorse 
that is consuming her soul, until at last it is fully, 
though unconsciously, revealed in the deeply affect- 
ing sleep-walking scene. 

The theme of the play may be well summed up, in 
the words of Mr. Hiecke, as: "the representation of 
ambition as a fiendish living force, driving on an 
heroic nature, that is possessed of high aims and 
capable of the grandest deeds, yet restricted by exter- 
nal barriers, to conspiracy against an anointed power, 
an established hereditary royalty, on fealty to which 
depends not only the prosperity of all, but the true, 
genuine happiness of the conspirator himself ; hereby 
dooming countless numbers to destruction, as well as 
plunging the rebel himself into spiritual and, by the 
final moral concatenation, into physical ruin, but by 
these very means causing the power which has been 
outraged to emerge all the more gloriously." 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 



METRICAL STRUCTURE 

Macbeth, like the most of Shakespeare's plays, is 
written in dramatic blank verse, and the typical meas- 
ure is iambic pentameter, e.g. : 

"If thou | be'st slain, | and with | no stroke | of mine, 
My wife | and chil | dren's ghosts | will haunt | me still." 

— V., 7, 15, 16. 

This measure is too monotonous and formal for con- 
stant use, and Shakespeare exercised much license in 
its use, especially since his plays were composed for 
the ear rather than the eye, and therefore depended 
for their effective presentation more upon the natural 
rhythm than upon the strict observance of the rules 
of metrical structure. He constantly introduced va- 
riations in the line chiefly, (1) by changing the posi- 
tion of the accent ; (2) by introducing trisyllabic and 
monosyllabic feet, and (3) by decreasing the number 
of feet. 

Illustrations of some of the more important of these 
variations are given below. 

The first foot of initial lines is frequently a trochee, 
and the accent after a pause, whether at the beginning 
or in the middle of a line, is generally on the follow- 
ing syllable, especially if this syllable is emphatic : 



XXXVl INTRODUCTION 

" Fe€d and | regard j him not. | Are you | a man ? " — III., 4, 58. 
" The hand | le toward | my hand. | Cdme, let | me clutch thee." 

- II., 1, 34. 

An extra syllable is frequently added before a 
pause, especially at the end of a line : 

" For mine | own safeties ; | You may | he right | ly just." 

" For good | ness dares | not check thee ; | wear thou | thy wrongs." 

— IV., 3, 33. 

In Elizabethan English many syllables, which we 
now pronounce, were omitted in pronunciation : 

" Be bright | and jdv | ial amdng | your guests | to-night." 

— III., 2, 28. 

Many contractions were then made which good 
usage does not now sanction, e.g. canstkk for candle- 
stick ; ignomy for ignominy ; parlous for perilous, etc. 
The forty -fourth line of the first scene in Act III. can 
be scanned only by contracting "God be with yon" 
into good-bye. 

Any unaccented syllable of a polysyllabic word 
may be softened or even ignored : 

" With them | they think | on. 
Things | without | all remedy." 

The plural and possessive cases of nouns in which 
the singular ends in s, se, ss, ce, and ge are frequently 



INTROD UCTION x XX vii 

written, and still more frequently pronounced, with- 
out the additional syllable : 

"Their sense | are shut." — V., 1, 29. 

The letter s is probably not sounded in "horses" 
in the following : 

" And Dun | can's hdrses | (a thing | most strange | and certain)." 

— II., 4, 14. 

R and liquids in dissyllables are frequently pro- 
nounced as though an extra vowel were introduced 
between them and the preceding consonant : 

" That croaks | the fa | tal en | t(e) ranee | of Duncan." — I., 5, 40. 

Monosyllables, containing diphthongs and long 
vowels, are often so emphasized as to dispense with 
an unaccented syllable : 

" 'Gainst my | captiv | ity. | Hail, | brave friend." — I., 2, 5. 

In some cases the last foot contains two extra sylla- 
bles, one of which is slurred : 

" The niim | bers of | our host | and make | discdvery." — V.,4, 6. 
"Is gone | to pray | the ho | ly king | upon his (ou's) aid." 

— III., 6, 30. 

The speeches of the witches are generally written 
in rhymed verse, and the iambic is changed to the 
trochaic measure with four feet : 



xxxvm INTRODUCTION 

" Double, | double, | toil and | trouble, 
Fire | burn and | cauldron | bubble." — IV., 1, 20. 

It will be noticed that the number of syllables to 
the line in the witch dialogues varies frequently, yet 
these variations never interfere with the rhythmical 
harmony. 

Single lines with two or three accents appear fre- 
quently, but most naturally, at the beginning and end 
of a speech and in soliloquies. This is so common as 
not to need illustration. Sometimes a stage direction 
will explain the introduction of a short line : 

" This is a somj sight. {Looking on his hands.)" — II., 2, 21. 

Many other minor variations occur, but enough have 
been cited to give a general idea of the peculiarities of 
meter in this pla}^, and, perhaps, to show that Shake- 
speare pays but little attention to technical rules in 
his metrical structure, but is guided rather by his 
innate sense of harmony, which is, after all, the 
essence of poetic expression, and furthest removed 
from formal and mechanical composition. 



IN TROD UCTION XXXI X 



QUESTIONS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
THE PLOT 

After the play has been carefully read it may be 
more carefully studied by means of such questions 
as the following : 

1. Do the witches furnish the first suggestion of 
crime to Macbeth, or has the temptation already en- 
tered his heart ? 

2. Does Duncan anywhere manifest jealousy of Mac- 
beth ? Does he seem to have any suspicion of treach- 
ery either at his hands or at those of Lady Macbeth ? 

3. In Scene 3, Act L, is there any reason to believe 
that the conversation, which precedes the entrance of 
Macbeth, was not written by Shakespeare ? 

4. In what different ways does the revelation of the 
witches affect Macbeth and Banquo respectively ? 

5. In the latter part of Scene 3, Act L, does Mac- 
beth give any evidence of insincerity, or, at the least, 
of a lack of candor ? 

6. What does the proclamation of Malcolm as Dun- 
can's successor contribute to the action of the play ? 

7. Are there any passages in the play which 
demonstrate the truth of Lady Macbeth's words: 
"Your face, my thane, is a book wherein men may 
read strange matters ? " 



xl INTRODUCTION 

8. Do you observe any evidence of insincerity in 
Lady Macbeth's greeting to Duncan ? 

9. Observe the conflicting emotions in the mind of 
Macbeth as he contemplates the murder of Duncan. 
What considerations finally overcome his scruples and 
lead him to the commission of the crime ? Contrast 
his motives with those of Lady Macbeth. 

10. Is there any reason to believe that Banquo sus- 
pects foul play ? If he does and still takes no pre- 
cautions to save the king, what does it indicate in 
regard to the influence of the witches' prediction on 
his mind ? 

11. Does Macbeth believe the bloody dagger to be 
real or "a false creation proceeding from the heat- 
oppressed brain " ? 

12. Study carefully the passage beginning, " Me- 
thought I heard a voice cry ' Sleep no more.' " What 
phase of Macbeth's character does this illustrate ? 
Would such words be naturally expected from a man 
who has just committed a horrible murder ? 

13. Does the "Porter" scene contribute anything 
to the development of the plot ? Would there not be 
a distinct loss if it were omitted ? 

14. Is Macbeth successful in his attempts to fix 
suspicion on some one else ? 

1.5. Is there anything in Act II. to show that Mac- 
beth was suspected by any one ? If so, by whom, and 
on what grounds ? 



IN TROD UCTION xl i 

16. Why does Macbeth fear Banquo ? 

17. Why does Macbeth conceal his plot against 
Banquo from his wife ? What change in their rela- 
tions to each other is indicated by this fact ? 

18. In the carrying out of the plot against Banquo 
why is a third murderer introduced? Is there any- 
thing to indicate that this was Macbeth ? 

19. What artistic purpose does the introduction of 
the ghost serve ? What is its function in the develop- 
ment of the plot ? Is there any evidence in the text 
to show that Shakespeare intended this ghost to be 
accepted merely as the product of Macbeth's over- 
wrought fancy ? 

20. What does the " Witch " scene in Act IV. con- 
tribute to the play ? Would the action of the play 
have been complete without it ? 

21. Is Macduff justified in fleeing from Scotland ? 
Why should Macbeth seek to put him to death ? 

22. Why is the pathetic episode at Macduff's castle 
introduced ? What does it show in regard to Mac- 
beth's moral decline ? By what distinct steps has 
his conscience become sufficiently hardened to render 
the commission of this crime possible ? 

23. Why does Malcolm indulge in self-depreciation ? 
What is gained by the introduction of this conversa- 
tion between Malcolm and Macduff ? 

24. How has Lady Macbeth been affected by her 



xlii INTRODUCTION 

evil-doing, as shown in the sleep-walking scene ? How 
and why have her relations to her husband changed 
since she led him on to the murder of Duncan ? Can 
you explain why complicity in the same crime has 
driven her to remorse, while it has led him on to the 
commission of still further crimes ? 

25. Contrast the Macbeth of Act V., Scene 3, with 
the same character in Act L, Scene 3. 

26. Does Macbeth's reception of the news of his 
wife's death indicate that he has lost his affection for 
her? 

27. Why has Shakespeare removed all, save one, of 
the scenes of actual murder from the sight of the audi- 
ence in Macbeth, a practice which he does not follow 
in his other tragedies ? Why is the murder of Mac- 
duff's son made an exception ? 

28. Give an outline of the downward career of Mac- 
beth from the first temptation to his final overthrow. 

29. What specific part in the working out of the 
central theme does each one of the following characters 
play ? — Lady Macbeth ; the Sergeant ; the Weird Sis- 
ters ; Duncan ; Malcolm ; the Porter ; Macduff ; Lady 
Macduff; Banquo. 

30. Discuss the following statements : to what ex- 
tent is each one true ? 

" ' Macbeth ' is the type of ambition, just as 'Othello ' 
is the type of jealousy." — Mezih-es. 



INTRODUCTION xliii 

" In spite of every incitement to good, Macbeth 
gradually pursued the path of evil." — Flathe. 

" Macbeth's is a nature predestined to murder." 
— Leo. 

" Macbeth is not a type of ambition and its increas- 
ing inertia ; he is rather the type of a pure and noble 
man driven by circumstance to crime and living the 
rest of his life in fear of the consequences which he 
knows must sooner or later follow." — Pattee. 



THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 



Duncan, king of Scotland. 

Malcolm, I y . 

_ ( 7ns sons. 

DONALBAIN, ' 



generals of the King's army. 



noblemen of Scotland. 



Macbeth, i 

Banquo, ) 

Macduff, 

Lennox, 

Eoss, 

Menteith, 

I NG US, 

'INESS^ 

. son to Banquo. 

H of Northumberland, general of the English forces. 
>. his son. 

attending on Macbeth. 

'>:tor. 
■ant. 

An Old 

Lady Macbeth. 
Lady Macduff. 
Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth. 

Hecate. 
Three Witches. 
Apparitions. 

Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murderers, Attendants, 
and Messengers. 

Scene: Scotland; England. 
2 



THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 



ACT FIRST. — Scexxe L 

A desert place. 
Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches. 

First Witch. When shall we three meet again 
In thunder, lightning, or in rain? ° 

Sec. Witch. When the hurlyburly's ° done, 
When the battle's lost and won. 

Third Witch. That will be ere the set of sun. 

First Witch. Where the place ? 

Sec. Witch. Upon the heath. 

Third Witch. There to meet with Macbeth. 

First Witch. I come, Graymalkin. 

All. Paddock calls : — anon ! 
Fair is foul, and foul is fair. 10 

Hover through fog and filthy air. [Exeunt. 

3 



4 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Scene II. 

A camp near Forres. 

Alarum within. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donal- 
bain, Lennox, ivith Attendants, meeting a bleeding 
Sergeant. 

Dun. What bloody ° man is that ? He can report, 
As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt ° 
The newest state. 

Mai. This is the sergeant 

Who like a good and hardy soldier fought 
'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend ! 
Say to the king the knowledge of the broil 
As thou didst leave it. 

Ser. Doubtful it stood; 

As two spent swimmers, that do cling together 
And choke ° their art. The merciless Macdonwald — 
Worthy to be rebel, for to that ° 10 

The multiplying villanies of nature 
Do swarm upon him — from the western isles 
Of kerns ° and gallowglasses ° is supplied ; 
And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling, 
Show'd ° like a rebel's whore : but all's too weak : 
For brave Macbeth — well he deserves that name — 






Scene 2.] THE, TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 5 

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel 

Which smoked with bloody execution, 

Like valour's minion carved out his passage 

Till he faced the slave ; 20 

Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, 

Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps, 

And fix'd his head upon our battlements. 

Dun. valiant cousin ! worthy gentleman ! 

Ser. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection 
.Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break, 
So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come 
Discomfort swells. Mark, king of Scotland, mark : 
No sooner justice had, with valour arm'd, 
Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels, 30 
But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage, 
With f urbish'd ° arms and new supplies of men, 
Began a fresh assault. 

Dun. Dismay'd not this 

Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo ° ? 

Ser. Yes ; 

As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion. 
If I say sooth, I must report they were 
As cannons overcharged with double cracks ; ° so 

they 
Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe : 






6 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds, 

Or memorize ° another Golgotha, 40 

I cannot tell — 

Bnt I am faint; ° my gashes cry for help. 

Dun. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds ; 
They smack of honour both. Go get him surgeons. 

[Exit Sergeant, attended. 
Who comes here ? 



Enter Ross. 

Mai. The worthy thane ° of Ross. 

Len. What a haste looks through his eyes ! So 
should he look 
That seems ° to speak things strange. 

Ross. God save the king ! 

Dun. Whence earnest thou, worthy thane ? 

Boss. From Fife, great king ; 

Where the Norweyan banners flout ° the sky 
And fan our people cold. Norway himself 50 

With terrible numbers, 
Assisted by that most disloyal traitor 
The thane of Cawdor, began' a dismal conflict ; 
Till that Bellona's ° bridegroom, lapp'd in proof, 
Confronted him with self-comparisons, 
Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm. 






Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 7 

Curbing his lavish spirit : and, to conclude, 
The victory fell on us. 

Dun. Great happiness ! 

Ross. That now 
Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition ;° 
Nor would we deign him burial of his men 60 

Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's inch, 
Ten thousand dollars ° to our general use. 

Dun. No more that thane of Cawdor shall deceive 
Our bosom interest : go pronounce his present death, 
And with his former title greet Macbeth. 

Boss. I'll see it done. 

Dun. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won. 

{Exeunt. 

Scene III. 

A heath. 

Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Where hast thou been, sister ? 
Sec. Witch. Killing swine. 
Third Witch. Sister, where thou ? 
First Witch. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her 
lap, 



8 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd. " Give 

• me," quoth I : 
" Aroint thee,° witch ! " the rump-fed ronyon ° cries. 
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the 

Tiger : 
But in a sieve ° I'll thither sail, 
And, like a rat without a tail, 
I'll do,° I'll do, and I'll do. 

Sec. Witch. I'll give thee a wind. 

First Witch. Thou'rt kind. 

Third Witch. And I another. 

First Witch. I myself have all the other ; 
And the very ports ° they blow, 
All the quarters that they know 
I' the shipman's card. 
I will drain him dry as hay : 
Sleep shall neither night nor day 

Hang upon his pent-house ° lid ; 20 

He shall live a man forbid : ° 
Weary se'nnigbts nine times nine 
Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine : 
Though his bark cannot be lost, 
Yet it shall be tempest-tost. 
Look what I have. 

Sec. Witch. Show me, show me. 









Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 9 

First Witch. Here I liave a pilot's thumb, 
Wreck'd as homeward he did come. [Drum within. 

Third Witch. A drum, a dram ! 30 

Macbeth doth come. 

All. The weird sisters, hand in hand, 
Posters of the sea and land, 
Thus do go about, about : 
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, 
And thrice again, to make up nine. 
Peace ! the charm's wound up. 

Enter Macbeth and Banquo. 

31acb. So foul and fair a day ° I have not seen. 

Ban. How far is't call'd to Forres ? What are 
these 
So wither'd, and so wild in their attire, 40 

That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, 
And yet are on't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
That man may question ? You seem to understand 

me, 
By each at once her choppy finger laying 
Upon her skinny lips : you should be women, 
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret 
That you are so. 

Macb. Speak, if you can: what are you ? 



10 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

First Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane 
of Glamis ! 

Sec. Witch. All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, thane 
of Cawdor ! 

Third Witch. All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be 
king hereafter! 50 

Ban. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear 
Things that do sound so fair ? F the name of truth, 
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed 
Which outwardly ye show ? My noble partner 
You greet with present grace ° and great prediction 
Of noble having ° and of royal hope, 
That he seems rapt ° withal : to me you speak not : 
If you can look into the seeds of time, 
And say which grain will grow and which will not, 
Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear 60 

Your favours nor your hate.° 

First Witch. Hail! 

Sec. Witch. Hail! 

Third Witch. Hail! 

First Witch. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. 

Sec. Witch. Not so happy, yet much happier. 

Third Witch. Thou shalt get kings, though thou 
be none : ° 
So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo ! 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 11 

First Witch. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail ! 

Macb. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more : 
By Sinel's ° death I know I am thane of Glamis ; 71 
But how of Cawdor ? the thane of Cawdor lives, 
A prosperous gentleman ; and to be king 
Stands not within the prospect of belief, 
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence 
You owe ° this strange intelligence ? or why 
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way 
With such prophetic greeting ? Speak, I charge you. 

[Witches vanish. 

Ban. The earth hath bubbles as the water has, 
And these are of them : whither are they vanish'd ? 80 

Macb. Into the air, and what seem'd corporal 
melted 
As breath into the wind. Would they had stay 'd ! 

Ban. W T ere such things here as we do speak about ? 
Or have we eaten on the insane root ° 
That takes the reason prisoner ? 

Macb. Your children shall be kings. 

Ban. You shall be king. 

Macb. And thane of Cawdor too : went it not so ? 

Ban. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here ? 



12 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Enter Koss and Angus. 

Boss. The king hath happily received, Macbeth, 
The news of thy success : and when he reads 90 

Thy personal venture in the rebels' light, 
His wonders and his praises do contend 
Which should be thine or his : ° silenced with that, 
In viewing o'er the rest 0' the selfsame day, 
He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks, 
Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, 
Strange images of death. As thick as hail 
Came post with post, and every one did bear 
Thy praises in his kingdom's great defence, 
And pour'd them down before him. 

Ang. We are sent 100 

To give thee, from our royal master, thanks ; 
Only to herald thee into his sight, 
Not pay thee. 

Boss. And for an earnest of a greater honour, 
He bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor 
In which addition, hail, most worthy thane ! 
For it is thine. 

Ban. What, can the devil speak true ? 

Mad). The thane of Cawdor lives: why do you 
dress me 
In borrow'd robes? 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 13 

Aug. Who was the thane lives yet 

But under heavy judgement bears that life no 

Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was com- 
bined 
With those of Norway, or did line ° the rebel 
With hidden help and vantage, or that with both 
He labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not; 
But treasons capital, confessed and proved. 
Have overthrown him. 

Macb. [Aside] Glamis, and thane of Cawdor : 

The greatest is behind. — Thanks for your pains. — 
Do you not hope your children shall be kings, 
When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me 
Promised no less to them ? 

Bail. That, trusted home, 120 

Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, 
Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange : 
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, 
The instruments of darkness tell us truths, 
Win us with honest trifles, to betray's 
In deepest consequence. 
Cousins, a word, I pray you. 

Macb. [Aside'] Two truths are told, 

As happy prologues to the swelling act 
Of the imperial theme. — I thank you, gentlemen. — 



9- 



14 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

\_Aside] This supernatural soliciting 130 

Cannot be ill ; cannot be good : if ill, 

Why hath it given me earnest of success, 

Commencing in a truth ? I am thane of Cawdor : 

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion ° 

Whose horrid image doth unfix ° my hair 

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, 

Against the use of nature ? Present fears 

Are less than horrible imaginings : 

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, 

Shakes to my single state of man that function ° 140 

Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is 

But what is not. 

Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt. 

3Iacb. [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, 
chance may crown me, 
Without my stir. 

Ban. New honours come upon him, 

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould 
But with the aid of use. 

Macb. [Aside] Come what come may, 

Time and the hour runs through the roughest day. 

Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure. 

Macb. Give me your favour : my dull brain was 
wrought 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OE MACBETH 15 

With tilings forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains 
Are register'd where every day I turn 151 

The leaf to read them. Let us toward the king. 
Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time, 
The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak 
Our free hearts each to other. 

Ban. Very gladly. 

Macb. Till then, enough. Come, friends. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. 

Forres. The palace. 

Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, 
Lennox, and Attendants. 

Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor ? Are not 
Those in commission yet return'd? 

Mai, My liege, 

They are not yet come back. But I have spoke 
With one that saw him die, who did report 
That very frankly he confess'd his treasons, 
Implored your highness' pardon and set forth 
A deep repentance : nothing in his life 
Became him like the leaving it ; he died 
As one that had been studied ° in his death, 



16 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

To throw away the dearest thing he owed 10 

As 'twere a careless ° trifle. 

Dun. There's no art 

To find the mind's construction in the face : 
He was a gentleman on whom I bnilt 
An absolute trust. 

Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Boss, and Angus. 

worthiest cousin ! 
The sin of my ingratitude even now 
Was heavy on me: thou art so far before, 
That swiftest wing of recompense is slow 
To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved, 
That the proportion ° both of thanks and payment 
Might have been mine ! ° only I have left to say, 20 
More is thy due than more than all can pay.° 

Macb. The ° service and the loyalty I owe, 
In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part 
Is to receive our duties : and our duties 
Are to your throne and state children and servants ; 
Which do but what they should, by doing everything 
Safe ° toward your love and honour. 

Dun. Welcome hither 

I have begun to plant thee, and will labour 
To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo, 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 17 

That hast no less deserved, nor must be known 30 

No less to have done so : let me infold thee 
And hold thee to my heart. 

Ban. There if I grow, 

The harvest is your own. 

Dun. My plenteous joys,° 

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves 
In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes, 
And you whose places are the nearest, know, 
We will establish our estate upon 
Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter 
The Prince ° of Cumberland : which honour must 
Not unaccompanied invest him only, 40 

But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine 
On all deservers. From hence to Inverness, 
And bind us further to you.° 

Macb. The rest ° is labour, which is not used for you : 
I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful 
The hearing of my wife with your approach ; 
So humbly take my leave. 

Dun. My worthy Cawdor ! 

Macb. [_Aside\ The Prince of Cumberland ! that is 
a step 
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap, 
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires ;° 50 



18 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Let not light see my black and deep desires : 
The eye wink at the hand ; yet let that be 
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. [Exit. 
Dun. True, worthy Banquo ; he is full so valiant, 
And in his commendations I am fed ; 
It is a banquet to me. Let's after him, 
Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome : 
■It is a peerless kinsman. [Flourish. Exeunt. 

SCEXE V. 

Inverness. Macbeth 1 s castle. 

Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter. 

Lady M. " They met me in the day of success ; and 
I have learned by the perfectest report, they have 
more in them than mortal knowledge. "When I 
burned in desire to question them further, they made 
themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I 
stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the 
king, who all-hailed me ' Thane of Cawdor ' ; by which 
title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and re- 
ferred me to the coming on of time, with ' Hail, king 
that shalt be ! ' This have I thought good to deliver 
thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou 



Scene 5.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 19 

mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being igno- 
rant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to 
thy heart, and farewell." 
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be 
What thou art promised : yet do I fear thy nature ; 
It is too full o' the milk of human kindness 
To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; 
Art not without ambition, but without 
The illness ° should attend it : what thou wouldst 

highly, 20 

That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, 
And yet wouldst wrongly win : thou'ldst have, great 

Glamis, 
That which cries " Thus thou must do, if thou have it; 
And that which rather thou dost fear to do 
Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither, 
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, 
And chastise with the valour of my tongue 
All that impedes thee from the golden round, 
Which fate and metaphysical ° aid doth seem 
To have thee crown'd withal. 

Enter a Messenger. 

What is your tidings ? 
Mess. The king comes here to-night. 



20 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Lady M. Tliou'rt mad to say it : 

Is not thy master with him ? who, were't so, 32 

Would have informed for preparation. 

Mess. So please you, it is true : our thane is com- 
ing: 
One of my fellows had the speed of him, 
Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more 
Than would make up his message. 

Lady M. Give him tending ; 

He brings great news. {Exit Messenger. 

The raven himself is hoarse 
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
Under my battlements. Come you spirits ° 
That tend on mortal ° thoughts, unsex me here, 
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full 
Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood, 
Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 
That no compunctious ° visitings of nature 
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
The effect and it ! Come to my woman's breasts, 
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, 
Wherever in your sightless ° substances 
You wait on nature's mischief ! Come, thick night, 59 
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, 
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, 



Scene 5. J THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 21 

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the darkJ 
To cry "Hold, hold!" 

Enter Macbeth. 

Great Glamis ! worthy Cawdor ! 
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter ! ° 
Thy letters have transported me beyond 
This ignorant ° present, and I feel now 
The future in the instant. 

Macb. My dearest love, 

Duncan conies here to-night. 

Lady M. And when goes hence ? 

Macb. To-morrow, as he purposes. 

Lady M. 0, never 6o 

Shall sun that morrow see ! ° 
Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 
Look like the time ; bear welcome in your eye, 
Your hand, your tongue : look like the innocent 

flower, 
But be the serpent under't. He that's coming 
Must be provided for : and you shall put 
This night's great business into my dispatch ; 
Which shall to all our nights and days to come 
Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom. 70 



22 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Macb. We will speak further. d>«xC£ 

Lady M. Only look up clear ; ° 

To alter favour ever is to fear : 

Leave all the rest to me. [Exeunt. 



Scene VI. 

Before Macbeth 7 s castle. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, 

DONALBAIN, BANQUO, LENNOX, MACDUFF, BOSS, 

Angus, and Attendants. 

Dun. This castle hath a pleasant seat ; the air 
Nimbly ° and sweetly recommends itself 
Unto our gentle senses. 

Ban. This guest of summer, 

The temple-haunting ° martlet, does approve 
By his loved manslonry ° that the heaven's breath 
Smells wooingly here : no jutty,° frieze, 
Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird 
Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle : 
Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed 
The air is delicate. 

( 



Scene 6.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 23 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Dan. See, see, our honour'd hostess ! 10 

The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 
Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 
How you shall bid God 'ild ° us for your pains, 
And thank us for your trouble. 

Lady M. All our service 

In every point twice done, and then done double, 
Were poor and single business to contend 
Against those honours deep and broad wherewith 
Your majesty loads our house : for those of old, 
And the late dignities heap'd up to them, 
We rest your hermits. 

Dun. Where's the thane of Cawdor? 20 

We coursed him at the heels, and had a purpose 
To be his purveyor : but he rides well, 
And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath liolp him 
To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess, 
We are your guest to-night. 

Lady M. Your servants ever 

Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt, 
To make their audit at your highness' pleasure, 
Still to return your own. 

Dun. Give me your hand ; 

Conduct me to mine host : we love him highly, 



24 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

And shall continue our graces towards him. 30 

By your leave, hostess. [Exeunt. 

SCENE VII. 

Macbettts castle. 

Hautboys and torches. Enter a Sewer, and divers 
Servants with dishes and service, and £>«ss over 
the stage. Then enter Macbeth. 

Macb. If ° it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere 
well. 
It were done quickly % if the assassination 
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, 
With his surcease, success ; that but this blow 
Might be the be-all and the end-all here, 
But here upon this bank and shoal of time, 
We'ld jump ° the life to come. ^But in these cases 
We still have judgement here ; ° that we but teach 
Bloody instructions, which being taught return 
To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 10 
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice 
To our own lips. He's here in double trust : 
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, 
Strong both against the deed ; then, as his host, 



Scene 7.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 25 

Who should against his murderer shut the door, 
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan 
Hath borne his faculties ° so meek, hath been 
So clear ° in his great office, that his Virtues 
Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against 
The deep damnation of his taking-off ; 
And pity, like a naked new-born babe, 
Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubiii horsed 
Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur 
To prick the sides of my intent, but only 
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself 
And falls on the other. 



Enter Lady Macbeth. 

How now ! what news ? 
Lady M. He has almost supp'd : why have you left 

the chamber? 
Macb. Hath he ask'cl for me ? 

Lady M. Know you not he has ? 30 

Macb. W T e will proceed no further in this business : 
He hath honour'd me of late ; and I have bought 
Golden opinions from all sorts of people, 



26 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act I. 

Which would ° be worn now in their newest gloss, 
Not cast aside so soon. 

Lady 31. Was the hope drunk 

Wherein you dress'd yourself ? hath it slept since ° ? 
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale ° 
At what it did so freely ° ? From this time ° 
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard 
To be the same in thine own act and valour 40 

As thou art in desire ? Wouldst thou have that 
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, 
And live a coward in thine own esteem, 
Letting " I dare not " wait upon " I would," 
Like the poor cat i' the adage ° ? 

Macb. Prithee, peace : 

I dare do all that may become a man ; 
Who dares do more is none. 

Lady M. What beast ° was't then 

That made you break this enterprise to me ? 
When you durst do it, then you were a man ; 
And, to be more than what you were, you would 50 
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place 
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both : 
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now 
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know 
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me : 






Scene 7.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 27 

I would, while it was smiling in my face, 
Have pluck'd my nipple from Ms boneless gums, 
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you 
Have done to this. 

Macb. If we should fail ? 

Lady M. We fail ! ° 

Bat screw your courage to the sticking-place, 60 

And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep — 
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey 
Soundly invite him — his two chamberlains 
Will I with wine and wassail so convince, 
That memory, the warder of the brain, 
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason 
A limbec ° only : when in swinish sleep 
Their drenched natures lie as in a death, 
What cannot you and I perform upon 
The unguarded Duncan ? what not put upon ;o 

His spongy ° officers, who shall bear the guilt 
Of our great quell ? ° 

Macb. Bring forth men-children only ; 

For thy undaunted mettle should compose 
Nothing but males. Will it not be received, 
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two 
Of his own chamber, and used their very daggers. 
That they have done't ? 



28 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Lady M. Who dares receive it other, 

As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar 
Upon his death ? 

Macb. I am settled, and bend up 

Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. 80 

Away, and mock the time with fairest show : 
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. 

[Exeunt. 



ACT SECOND. — Scene I. 

Inverness. Court of 3Iacbeth , s castle. 
Enter Baxquo, and Fleaxce bearing a torch before him. 

Ban. How goes the night, boy ? 

Fie. The moon is down ; I have not heard the clock. 

Ban. And she goes down at twelve. 

Fie. I take't, 'tis later, sir. 

Ban. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in 
heaven, 
Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.° 
A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, 
And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers, 
Eestrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
Gives way to in repose ° ! 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 29 

Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch. 

Give me my sword. 
Who's there ? 10 

Mad). A friend. 

Ban. What, sir, not yet at rest ? The king's a-bed : 
He hath been in unusual pleasure, and 
Sent forth great largess to your offices : ° 
This diamond ° he greets your wife withal, 
By the name of most kind hostess ; and shut up 
In measureless content. 

Macb. Being unprepared, 

Our will became the servant to defect, 
Which else should free have wrought. 

Ban. All's well. 

I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters : 20 

To you they have show'd some truth. 

Macb. I think not of them : 

Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
We would spend it in some words upon that business, 
If you would grant the time. 

Ban. At your kind'st leisure. 

Macb. If ° you shall cleave ° to my consent, when 
'tis, 
It shall make honour for you. 

Ban. So I lose none 



30 THE TR AGE I J Y OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Iii seeking to augment it, but still keep 
My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, 
I shall be counsell'd. 

Macb. Good repose the while ! 

Ban. Thanks, sir: the like to you ! 30 

[Exeunt Baxquo and Fleance. 

Macb. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is 
ready, 
She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. 

[Exit Servant. 
Is this a dagger ° which I see before me, 
The handle toward my hand ? Come, let me clutch 

thee. 
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 
To feeling as to sight ? or art thou but 
A dagger of the mind, a false creation, 
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain ? 
I see thee yet, in form as palpable 40 

As this which now I draw. 
Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going ; 
And such an instrument I was to use. 
Mine eyes ° are made the fools o' the other senses, 
Or else worth all the rest : I see thee still ; 
And on thy blade and dudgeon ° gouts ° of blood, 



Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 31 

Which was not so before. There's no such thing : 

It is the bloody business which informs 

Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world 

Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse 50 

The cnrtain'd sleep ° ; witchcraft celebrates 

Pale Hecate's ° offerings ; and wither'd murder, 

Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, 

Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, 

With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design 

Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, 

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear 

Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, 

And take the present horror ° from the time, 

Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives : 60 

Words ° to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. 

\_A bell rings. 
I go, and it is done : the bell invites me. 
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell 
That summons thee to heaven, or to hell. [Exit. 

Scene II. 

The same. 

Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady 31. That which hath made them drunk hath 
made me bold ° ; 



32 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark ! 

Peace ! 
It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, 
Which gives the stern'st good-night. He is about it : 
The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms 
Do mock their charge with snores : I have drugg'd 

their possets, 
That death and nature do contend about them, 
Whether they live or die. 

Macb. [ Within] Who's there ° ? what, ho ! 

Lady M. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked 10 
And 'tis not done : the attempt and not the deed 
Confounds us. Hark ! ° I laid their daggers ready ; 
He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled 
My father as he slept, I had done't. 

Enter Macbeth. 

My husband ! 
Macb. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear 

a noise ? 
Lady M. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. 
Did not you speak ? 
Macb. When ? 

Lady M. Now. 

Macb. As I descended ? 



Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 33 

Lady M. Ay. 

Macb. Hark!° 
Who lies i' the second chamber ? 

Lady 31. Donalbain. 

Macb. This is a sorry sight. [Looking on his hands. 

Lady 31. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight. 21 

Macb. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one 
cried " Murder ! " 
That they did wake each other: I stood and heard 

them : 
But they did say their prayers, and address'd ° them 
Again to sleep. 

Lady 31. There are two lodged together. 

Macb. One cried " God bless us ! " and " Amen " the 
other, 
As they had seen me with these hangman's hands : 
Listening their fear, I could not say " Amen," ° 
When they did say " God bless us ! " 

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply. 30 

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce 
"Amen" ? 
I had most need of blessing, and " Amen " 
Stuck in my throat. 

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought 

After these ways ; so, it will make us mad.° 



34 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Macb. Methought ° I heard a voice cry " Sleep no 
more ! 
Macbeth does murder sleep" — the innocent sleep, 
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave ° of care, 
The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, 
Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, 
Chief nouri slier in life's feast, — 

Lady M. What do you mean ? 40 

Macb. Still it cried " Sleep no more ! " to all the 
house : 
" Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor 
Shall sleep no more : Macbeth shall sleep no more." 

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried? Why, 
worthy thane, 
You do unbend your noble strength, to think 
So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, 
And wash this filthy witness from your hand. 
Why did you bring these daggers from the place ? 
They must lie there : go carry them, and smear 
The sleepy grooms with blood. 

Macb. I'll go no more : 50 

I am afraid to think what I have done ; 
Look on't again I dare not. 

Lady M. Infirm of purpose ! 

Give me the daggers : the sleeping and the dead 



Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 35 

Are but as pictures : 'tis the eye of childhood 
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, 
I'll gild ° the faces of the grooms withal, 
For it must seem their guilt. [Exit. Knocking within. 
Macb. Whence is that knocking ? 

How is it with me, when every noise appals me ? 
What hands are here ? ha ! they pluck out mine 

eyes! 
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 60 

Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather 
The multitudinous seas incarnadine, 
Making the green one ° red. 

Re-enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. My hands are of your colour, but I shame 
To wear a heart so white. [Knocking ivithin.~\ I hear 

a knocking 
At the south entry : retire we to our chamber : 
A little water clears us of this deed : 
How easy is it then ! Your constancy 
Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.'] Hark ! 

more knocking : 
Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us 70 

And show us to be watchers : be not lost 
So poorly in your thoughts. 



36 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Mad). To know my deed, 'twere best not know my- 
self. [Knocking within. 
Wake Duncan with thy knocking ! I would thou 
couldst ! [Exeunt 

Scene III. 

The same. 

Enter a Porter. Knocking within. 

Porter. Here's a knocking indeed ! If a man were 
porter ° of hell-gate, he should have old ° turning the 
key. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! 
Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub ? Here's a 
farmer, that hanged himself on th' expectation of 
plenty : come in time ° ; have napkins ° enow about 
you; here you'll sweat fort. [Knocking within.'} 
Knock, knock ! Who's there, in th' other devil's 
name ? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear 
in both the scales against either scale ; who committed 10 
treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivo- 
cate to heaven : 0, come in, equivocator. [Knocking 
within.} Knock, knock, knock ! Who's there ? Faith, 
here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out 
of a French hose : come in, tailor ; here you may roast 
your goose. [Knocking within.'] Knock, knock; 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 37 

never at quiet ! What are you ? But this place is too 
cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further : I had 
thought to have let in some of all professions, that go 
the primrose way ° to the everlasting bonfire. [Knock- 20 
ing witliin.~] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the 
porter. [Opens the gate. 

Enter Macduff and Lennox. 

Macd. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed, 
That you do lie so late ? 

Port. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second 

cock. 
Macd. Is thy master stirring ° ? 

Enter Macbeth. 

Our knocking has awaked him ; here he comes. 

Len. Good morrow, noble sir. 

Macb. Good morrow, both. 

Macd. Is the king stirring, worthy thane ? 

Macb. Not yet,° 

Macd. He did command me to call timely on him : 51 
I had almost slipp'd the hour. 

Macb. I'll bring you to him. 

Macd. I know this is a joyful trouble to you ; 
But yet 'tis one. 



38 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Macb. The labour we delight in physics ° pain. 
This is the door.° 

Macd. I'll make so bold to call, 

For 'tis my limited service. [Exit. 

Len. Goes the king hence to-day ? 

Macb. He does : he did appoint so. 

Len. The night has been unruly : where we lay, 
Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say, 60 
Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death, 
And prophesying ° with accents terrible 
Of dire combustion and confused events 
New hatch'd to the woful time : the obscure bird ° 
Clamour'd the livelong night : some say, the earth 
Was feverous ° and did shake. 

Macb. 'Twas a rough night. 

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel 
A fellow to it. 

Re-enter Macduff. 

Macd. horror, horror, horror ! Tongue nor heart 
Cannot conceive nor name thee.° 

Macb - I What's the matter ? 7 o 

Len. ) 

Macd. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece. 

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope 

The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 39 

The life o' the building. 
Macb. What is't you say ? the life ? 

Len. Mean you his majesty ? 

Macd. Approach the chamber, and destroy your 
sight. 
With a new Gorgon : ° do not bid me speak ; 
See, and then speak yourselves. 

[E-xeunt Macbeth and Lennox. 
Awake, awake ! 
King the alarum-bell. Murder and treason ! 
Banquo and Donalbain ! Malcolm ! awake ! 80 

Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit, 
And look on death itself ! up, up, and see 
The great doom's image ° ! Malcolm ! Banquo ! 
As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites, 
To countenance this horror. King the bell. 

[Bell rings. 
Enter Lady Macbeth. 

Lady M. What's the business, 
That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley 
The sleepers of the house ? speak, speak ! 

Macd. gentle lady, 

- ? Tis not for you to hear what I can speak : 
The repetition in a woman's ear, 90 

Would murder as it fell. 



40 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act H. 

Enter Baxquo. 

Banquo, Banquo ! 
Our royal master's murder'd. 

Lady M. Woe, alas ! 

What, in our house ° ? 

Ban. Too cruel any where. 

Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself, 
And say it is not so. 

Re-enter Macbeth and Lexxox, with Ross. 

Maeb. Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
I had lived a blessed time ; for from this instant 
There's nothing serious in mortality : 
All is but toys : renown and grace is dead ; 
The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees ioo 

Is left this vault to brag of. 

Enter Malcolm and Doxalbaix. 

Don. What is amiss ? 

Macb. You are, and do not know't : 
The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood 
Is stopp'd ; the very source of it is stopp'd. 

Macd. Your royal father's murder'd. 

Mai. 0, by whom ? 

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had 
done't : 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 41 

Their hands and faces were all badged with blood ; 
So were their daggers, which imwiped we found 
Upon their pillows : 

They stared, and were distracted; no man's life no 
Was to be trusted with them. 

Macb. 0,° yet I do repent me of my fury, 
That I did kill them. 

Macd. Wherefore did ye so ? 

Macb. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and 
furious, 
Loyal and neutral, in a moment ? No man : 
The expedition of my violent love 
Outrun ° the pauser ° reason. Here lay Duncan, 
His silver skin ° laced with his golden blood, 
And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature 
For ruin's wasteful entrance : there, the murderers, 120 
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers 
Unmannerly breech' d ° with gore : who could re- 
frain, 
That had a heart to love, and in that heart 
Courage to make's ° love known ? 

Lady M. Help me hence, ho ! 

Macd. Look to the lady.° 

Mai. [Aside to Don.] Why do we hold our tongues, 
That most may claim this argument for ours ? 



42 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

Don. [Aside to Mal.] What should be spoken here, 
where our fate, 
Hid in an auger-hole,° may rush, and seize us ? 
Let's away ; 
Our tears ° are not yet brew'd. 

Mal. [Aside to Dox.] Nor our strong sorrow ° 

Upon the foot of motion. 

Ban. Look to the lady : 131 

[Lady Macbeth is carried out. 
And when we have our naked frailties hid, 
That suffer in exposure, let us meet, 
And question this most bloody piece of work, 
To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us : 
In the great hand of God I stand, and thence 
Against the divulged pretence I fight 
Of treasonous malice. 

Macd. And so do I. 

All So all. 

Macb. Let's briefly put on manly readiness, 
And meet i' the hall together. 

All. Well contented. 140 

[Exeunt all but Malcolm and Doxalbaix. 

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with 
them : 
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office 






Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 43 

Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. 

Don. To Ireland, I ; our separated fortune 
Shall keep us both the safer. : where we are 
There's daggers ° in men's smiles : the near in blood, 
The nearer bloody. 

Mai. This murderous shaft ° that's shot 

Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way 
Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse ; 
And let us not be dainty of leave-taking, 150 

But shift away : there's warrant in that theft 
Which steals itself when there's no mercy left. 

{Exeunt. 

Scene IV. 

Outside Macbeth 1 s castle. 

Enter Ross with an old Man. 

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well : 
Within the volume of which time I have seen 
Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore ° 

night 
Hath trifled ° former knowings. 

Ross. ■ Ah, good father, 

Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock 'tis day, 



44 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act II. 

And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp ° : 
Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
When living light should kiss it ° ? 

Old M. 'Tis unnatural, 10 

Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last 
A falcon towering ° in her pride of place 
Was by a mousing owl ° hawk'd at and kill'd. 

Boss. And Duncan's horses — a thing most strange 
and certain — 
Beauteous and swift, the minions ° of their race, 
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out, 
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
War with mankind. 

Old M. 'Tis said they eat each other. 

Boss. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes, 
That look'd upon't. 

Enter Macduff. 

Here comes the good Macduff. 20 
How goes the world, sir, now ? 

Macd. Why, see you not ? 

Boss. Is't known who did this more than bloody 

deed ? 
Macd. Those that Macbeth hath slain. 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 45 

Ross. Alas, the day ! 

What good could they pretend ? 

Macd. They were suborn'd : 

Malcolm and Donalbain, the king's two sons, 
Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them 
Suspicion of the deed. 

Boss. 'Gainst nature still : 

Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up ° 
Thine own life's means ! Then 'tis most like 
The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth. 30 

Macd. He is already named, and gone to Scone ° 
To be invested. 

Boss. Where is Duncan's body ? 

Macd. Carried to Colme-kill,° 
The sacred storehouse of his predecessors 
And guardian of their bones. 

Boss. Will you to Scone ? 

Macd. No, cousin, I'll to Fife. 

Boss. Well, I will thither. 

Macd. Well, may you see things well done there : 
adieu ! 
Lest our old robes sit easier than our new ! 

Boss. Farewell, father. 

Old M. God's benison go with you, and with those 40 
That would make good of bad and friends of foes ! 

[Exeunt. 



40 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

ACT THIRD.— -Scene I. 

Forres. The palace. 
Enter Baxquo. 

Ban. Thou ° hast it now : king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, 
As the weird women promised, and I fear 
Thou play'dst most foully for't : yet it was said 
It should not stand in thy posterity, 
But that myself should be the root and father 
Of many kings. If there come truth from them — 
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine ° — 
Why, by the verities on thee made good, 
May they not be my oracles as well 
And set me up in hope ? But hush, no more. 10 

Sennet sounded. Enter Macbeth as king ; Lady Mac- 
beth as queen; Lennox, Eoss, Lords, Ladies, 
and Attendants. 

Mach. Here's our chief guest. 

Lady M. If he had been forgotten, 

It had been as a gap in our great feast, 
And all-thing ° unbecoming. 

Mach. To-night we hold a solemn ° supper, sir, 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 47 

And I'll request your presence. 

Ban. Let ° your highness 

Command upon me, to the which my duties 
Are with a most indissoluble tie 
For ever knit. 

Macb. Ride you this afternoon ? 

Ban. Ay, my good lord. 20 

Macb. We should have else desired your good 
advice, 
Which still ° hath been both grave and prosperous, 
In this day's council ; but we'll take to-morrow. 
Is't far you ride ? 

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time 
'Twixt this and supper : go not my horse the better 
I must become a borrower of the night 
For a dark hour or twain. 

Macb. Fail not our feast. 

Ban. My lord, I will not. 

Macb. We hear our bloody cousins are bestow'd 30 
In England and in Ireland, not confessing 
Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers 
With strange invention ° : but of that to-morrow, 
When therewithal ° we shall have cause of state 
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse : adieu, 
Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you ? 



48 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Ban. Ay, my good lord : our time does call upon's. 

Macb. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot, 
And so I do commend you to their backs. 
Farewell. [Exit Baxquo. 40 

Let every man be master of his time 
Till seven at night ; to make society 
The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself 
Till supper-time alone: while then, God be with you! 
[Exeunt all but Macbeth and cm Attendant. 
Sirrah, a word with you : attend those men 
Our pleasure ? 

Attend. They are, my lord, without the palace-gate. 

Macb. Bring them before us. [Exit Attendant. 

To be thus is nothing ° ; 
But to be safely thus : our fears in Ban quo 
Stick deep ; and in this royalty of nature 50 

Reigns that which would be fear'd : 'tis much he dares, 
And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 
To act in safety. There is none but he 
Whose being I do fear : and under him 
My Genius ° is rebuked, as it is said 
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters, 
When first they put the name of king upon me, 
And bade them speak to him ; then prophet-like 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 49 

They hail'd him father to a line of kings : 60 

Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown 

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, 

Thence to be wrench' d with ° an unlineal hand, 

No son of mine succeeding. If 't be so, 

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind ; 

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd ; 

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace 

Only for them, and mine eternal jewel ° 

Given to the common enemy of man, 

To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings ! 70 

Bather than so, come, fate, into the list, 

And champion me to the utterance ! ° Who's there ? 

Re-enter Attendant, ivith two Murderers. 

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call. 

[Exit Attendant. 
Was it not yesterday we spoke together ? 

First Mur. It was, so please your highness. 

Macb. Well then, now 

Have you consider'd of my speeches ? Know 
That it was he in the times past which held you 
So under fortune, which you thought had been 
Our innocent self : this I made good to you 



50 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

In our last conference; pass'd in probation with 

you, 80 

How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the 

instruments, 
Who wrought with them, and all things else that 

might 
To half a soul and to a notion crazed 
Say " Thus did Banquo." 

First Mar. You made it known to us. 

Macb. I did so ; and went further, which is now 
Our point of second meeting. Do you find 
Your patience so predominant in your nature, 
That you can let this go ? Are you so gospelh'd, 
To pray for this good man and for his issue, 
Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave 90 
And beggar'd yours for ever ? \ 

First Mur. * We are men, my liege. 

Macb. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men ; 
As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, 
Shoughs, water-rugs ° and demi-wolves, are clept ° 
All by the name of dogs: the valued file ° 
Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, 
The housekeeper, the hunter, every one 
According to the gift which bounteous nature 
Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 51 

Particular addition, from the bill 100 

That writes them all alike : and so of men. 

Now if you have a station in the file, 

Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it, 

And I will put that business in your bosoms 

Whose execution takes your enemy off, 

Grapples you to the heart and love of us, 

Who wear our health but sickly in his life, 

Which in his death were perfect. 

Sec. Mur. I am one, my liege, 

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world 
Have so incensed that I am reckless what no 

I do to spite the world. 

First Mur. And I another 

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, 
That I would set my life on any chance, 
To mend it or be rid on't. 

Macb. Both of you 

Know Banquo was your enemy. 

Both Mur. True, my lord. 

Macb. So is he mine, and in such bloody distance ° 
That every minute of his being thrusts 
Against my near'st of life : and though I could 
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight 
And bid my will avouch it,° yet I must not, 120 



52 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

For certain friends that are both his and mine, 
Whose loves I may not ° drop, but wail his fall ° 
Who ° I myself strnck down : and thence it is 
That I to your assistance do make love, 
Masking the business from the common eye 
For sundry weighty reasons. 

Sec. Mur. We shall, my lord, 

Perform what you command us. 

First Mur. Though our lives — 

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within this 
hour at most 
I will advise you where to plant yourselves, 
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time, 130 
The moment on't ; for't must be done to-night, 
And something from ° the palace; always thought 
That I require a clearness : and with him — 
To leave no rubs ° nor botches in the work — 
Fleance his son, that keeps him company, 
Whose absence is no less material to me 
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate 
Of that dark hour. Eesolve yourselves apart: 
I'll come to you anon. 

Both Mur. We are resolved, my lord. 

Macb. I'll call upon you straight ° : abide within. 140 

[Exeunt Murderers. 






Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 53 

It is concluded: Banquo thy soul's flight, 

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exit. 

Scene II. 

The palace. 

Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant. 

Lady 31. Is Banquo gone from court ? 

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night. 

Lady 31. Say to the king, I would attend his leisure 
For a few words. 

Serv. Madam, I will. [Exit. 

Lady 31. Nought's had, all's spent, 

Where our desire is got without content : 
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy 
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.° 

Enter Macbeth. 

How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone, 
Of sorriest fancies your companions making ; 9 

Using ° those thoughts which should indeed have died 
With them they think on? Things without all 

remedy 
Should be without regard ° : what's done is done. 



54 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 



f. 



Macb. We have scotch'd ° the snake, not kilPd it : 
*-She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice 
Bemains in danger of her former tooth. 
But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds 

suffer, 
Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep 
In the affliction of these terrible dreams 
That shake us nightly : better be with the dead, 
Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, 2 
Than on the torture of the mind to lie 
In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 
Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
Can touch him further. ~"7 

Lady 31. Come on ; 

Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks ; 
Be bright ° and jovial among your guests to-night. 

Macb. So shall I, love ; and so, I pray, be you : 
Let your remembrance apply to Banquo ; 3 

Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue : 
Unsafe the while, that Ave 

Must lave our honours in these flattering streams, 
And make our faces visards ° to our hearts, 
Disguising what they are. 



Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 55 

Lady M. You must leave this. 

Macb. 0, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife ! 
Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives. 

Lady M. But in them nature's copy's ° not eteme.° 

Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable; 
Then be thou jocund: ere the bat hath flown 40 

His cloister'd ° flight; ere to black Hecate's summons 
The shard-borne ° beetle with his drowsy hums 
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done 
A deed of dreadful note. 

Lady 3L What's to be done ? 

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, 
Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling ° night, 
Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day, 
And with thy bloody and invisible hand 
Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond ° 
Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the 
crow 50 

Makes wings to the rooky wood ° : 
Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, 
Whilst night's black agents ° to their preys do rouse. 
Thou marvell'st at my words : but hold thee still ; 
Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill : 
So, prithee, go with me. [Exeunt. 



56 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Scene III. 
A park near the palace. 
Enter three Murderers. 

First Mur. But who did bid thee join with us ? 

Third Mar. Macbeth. 

See. Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he 
delivers 
Our offices, and what we have to do, 
To the direction just. 

First Mur. Then stand with us. 

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day : 
Now spurs the lated traveller apace 
To gain the timely inn, and near approaches 
The subject of our watch. 

Third Mur. Hark! I hear horses. 

Ban. [Within'] Give us a light there, ho ! 

Sec. Mur. Then 'tis he : the rest 

That are within the note of expectation 10 

Already are i' the court. 

First Mur. His horses go about. 

TJiird Mur. Almost a mile : but he does usually — 
So all men do — from hence to the palace gate 
Make it their walk. 

Sec. Mur. A light, a light ! 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OE MACBETH 57 

Enter Banquo, and Fleance ivith a torch. 

Third Mar. Tis he. 

First Mar. Stand to't. 

Ban. It will be rain to-night. 

First Mar. Let it come down. 

[They set upon Banquo. 

Ban. 0, treachery ! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly ! 
Thon mayst revenge. slave ! 

\_Dies.° Fleance ° escapes. 

Third Mar. Who did strike out the light ? 

First Mar. Was't not the way ? 

Third Mar. There's but one down ; the son is fled. 

Sec. Mar. We have lost 20 

Best half of our affair. 

First Mar. Well, let's away and say how much is 
done. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. 

Hall in the palace. 

A banquet prepared. Enter Macbeth, Lady Mac- 
beth, Eoss, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants. 

Macb. You know your own degrees ; sit down : at 
first 
And last ° a hearty welcome. 



58 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Lords. Thanks to your majesty. 

Macb. Our self will mingle with society ° 
And play the humble host. 
Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time, 
We will require ° her welcome. 

Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends, 
For my heart speaks they are welcome. 

Enter first Murderer to the door. 

Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' 
thanks. 
Both sides are even : here I'll sit i' the midst : 10 

Be large in mirth ; anon ° we'll drink a measure 
The table round. [Approaching the door.~\ There's 
blood upon thy face. 

Mar. 'Tis Banquo's then. 

Macb. 'Tis better thee without than he within. 
Is he dispatch'd ? 

Mar. My lord, his throat is cut ; that I did for him. 

Mach. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats : yet he's 
good 
That did the like for Eleance : if thou didst it, 
Thou art the nonpareil. 

Mar. Most royal sir, 

Fleance is 'scaped. 20 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH $9 

Macb. [ Aside] Then comes my fit ° again : I had 
else been perfect, 
Whole as the marble, founded as the rock, 
As broad and general as the casing air : 
But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confined, bound in 
To saucy doubts and fears. — But Banquo's safe ? 

Mar. Ay, my good lord : safe in a ditch he bides, 
With twenty trenched gashes on his head ; 
The least a death to nature. 

Macb. Thanks for that. 

[Aside~\ There the grown serpent lies ; the worm ° 

that's fled 
Hath nature that in time will venom breed, 30 

No teeth for the present. Get thee gone : to-morrow 
We'll hear ourselves again. [Exit Murderer. 

Lady M. My royal lord, 

You do not give the cheer : the feast is sold ° 
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, 
'Tis given with welcome : to feed ° were best at 

home ; 
From thence ° the sauce to meat is ceremony ; 
Meeting ° were bare without it. 

Macb. Sweet remembrancer ! 

Now good digestion wait on appetite, 
And health on both ! 



60 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Len. May't please your highness sit. 

{The Ghost of Baxquo enters, and sits in Mao 
beth's place. 
Macb. Here had we now our country's honour 
roof d, 40 

Were the graced person of our Banquo ° present ; 
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness 
Than pity for mischance ! 

Ross. His absence, sir, 

Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your high- 
ness 
To grace us with your royal company. 
Macb. The table's full. 

Len. Here is a place reserved, sir. 

Macb. Where ? 
Len. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves 

your highness ? 
Macb. Which of you have done this ? 
Lords. What, my good lord ? 

Macb. Thou canst not say I did it : never shake 50 
Thy gory locks at me. 

Ross. Gentlemen, rise ; his highness is not well. 
Lady M. Sit,° worthy friends : my lord is often 
thus, 
And hath been from his youth : pray you, keep seat ; 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 01 

The fit is momentary ; upon a thought 
He will again be well : if much you note him, 
You shall offend ° him and extend his passion : 
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man ° ? 

Macb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on 
that 
Which might appal the devil. 

Lady M. O proper stuff ! ° 60 

This is the very painting of your fear : 
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, 
Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts, 
Impostors ° to true fear, would well become 
A woman's story at a winter's fire, 
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! 
Why do you make such faces ? When all's done, 
You look but on a stool. 

Macb. Prithee, see there ! behold ! look ! lo ! how 
say you ? 
Why, what care I ? If thou canst nod, speak too. 70 
If charnel-houses and our graves must send 
Those that we bury back, our monuments 
Shall be the maws of kites. [Exit Ghost. 

Lady M. What, quite unmann'd in folly ? 

Macb. If I stand here, I saw him. 

Lady M. Fie, for shame ! 



62 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act 111. 

Macb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden 
time, 
Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal ° ; 
Ay, and since too, murders have been perform'd 
Too terrible for the ear : the time has been, 
That, when the brains were out, the man would die, 
And there an end ; but now they rise again, So 

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, 
And push us from our stools : this is more strange 
Than such a murder is. 

Lady 31. My worthy lord, 

Your noble friends do lack you. 

Macb. I do forget. 

Do not muse ° at me, my most worthy friends ; 
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing 
To those that know me. Come, love and health to 

all; 
Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine, fill full. 
I drink to the general joy o' the whole table, 
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss ; 90 
Would he were here ! to all and him we thirst, 
And all to all.° 

Lords. Our duties, and the pledge. 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 63 

Re-enter Ghost. 

Macb. A vaunt ! and quit my sight ! let the earth 
hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold : 
Thou hast no speculation ° in those eyes 
Which thou dost glare with. 

Lady M. Think of this, good peers, 

But as a thing of custom : 'tis no other; 
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. 

Macb. What man dare, I dare : 
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear, ioo 

The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger ° ; 
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves 
Shall never tremble : or be alive again, 
And dare me to the desert with thy sword ; 
If trembling I inhabit ° then, protest me 
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow ! 
Unreal mockery, hence ! [Exit Ghost. 

Why, so : being gone, 
I am a man again. Pray you, sit still. 

Lady M. You have displaced the mirth, broke the 
good meeting, 
With most admired disorder. 

Macb. Can such things be, no 

And overcome us like a summer's cloud, 



04 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Without our special wonder ? You make me strange ° 

Even to the disposition that I owe, 

When now I think you can behold such sights, 

And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 

When mine is blanch'd with fear. 

Ross. What sights, my lord ? 

Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse 
and worse ; 
Question enrages him : at once, good night : 
Stand not upon the order of your going, 
But go at once. 

Len. Good night ; and better health 120 

Attend his majesty ! 

Lady M. A kind good night to all ! 

[Exeunt all bid Macbeth and Lady M. 
Macb. It will have blood : they say blood will 
have blood: 
Stones have been known to move and trees to 

speak ; 
Augures and understood relations have 
By maggot-pies ° and choughs and rooks brought 

forth 
The secret'st man of blood. What is the night ? 
Lady 31. Almost at odds with morning, which is 
which. 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 65 

Macb. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his 
person 
At our great bidding ? 

Lady M. Did you send to him, sir ° ? 

Macb. I hear it by the way, but I will send : 130 
There's not a one of them but in his house 
I keep a servant fee'd. I will to-morrow, 
And betimes I will, to the weird sisters : 
More shall they speak, for now I am bent to know, 
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own 

good A 

All causes shall give way 1 1 am in blood 
Stepp'd in so far that, shotld I wade no more, 
Returning were as tedious as go o'er : 
Strange things I have in head that will to hand, 
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. 140 

Lady M. You lack the season of all natures, sleep. 

Macb. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self- 
abuse ° 
Is the initiate ° fear that wants hard use : 
We are yet but young in deed. [Exeunt. 



66 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Scene V. 

A heath. 

Thunder. Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate. 

First Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ! ° you look 
angerly. 

Hec. Have I not reason, beldams ° as you are, 
Saucy and over-bold ? How did you dare 
To trade and traffic with Macbeth 
In riddles and affairs of death ; 
And I, the mistress of your charms, 
The close ° contriver of all harms, 
Was never call'd to bear my part, 
Or show the glory of our art ? 

And, which is worse, all you have done 10 

Hath been but for a wayward son, 
Spiteful and wrathful ; who, as others do, 
Loves for his own ends, not for you. 
But make amends now : get you gone, 
And at the pit of Acheron ° 
Meet me i' the morning : thither he 
Will come to know his destiny : 
Your vessels and your spells provide, 



Scene 5.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 67 

Your charms and every thing beside. 
I am for the air ; this night I'll spend 20 

Unto a dismal and a fatal end: 
Great business must be wrought ere noon : 
Upon the corner of the moon 
There hangs a vaporous drop profound ° ; 
I'll catch it ere it come to ground : 
And that distill'd by magic sleights ° 
Shall raise such artificial sprites 
As by the strength of their illusion 
Shall draw him on to his confusion : 
f~ff e shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear 30 

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear: 
And you all know security ° 
Is mortals' chief est enemy. 

[Music and a song within : " Come away, come 

away," &c. 

Hark ! I am call'd ; my little spirit, see, 

.Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit. 

First Witch. Come, let's make haste ; she'll soon be 

back again. [Exeunt. 



68 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act III. 

Scene VI. 

Forres. The palace. 

Enter Lennox and another Lord. 

Len. My former speeches have but hit your 

thoughts, 
Which can interpret farther : only I say 
Things have been strangely borne. The gracious 

Duncan 
Was pitied of Macbeth : marry, he was dead : 
And the right-vLliant Banquo walked too late. 
Whom, you may say, if 't please you, Fleance kill'd, 
For Fleance fled : men must not walk too late. 
Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous 
It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain 
To kill their gracious father ? damned fact ! ° 10 

How it did grieve Macbeth ! did he not straight, 
In pious rage, the two delinquents tear, 
That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep ? 
Was not that nobly done ? Ay, and wisely too ; 
For 'twould have anger'd any man alive 
To hear the men deny't. So that, I say. 
He has borne all things well : and I do think 



Scene 6.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 69 

That, had he Duncan's son under his key — 

As, an't ° please heaven, he shall not — they should 

find 
What 'twere to kill a father ; so should Fleance. 20 
But, peace ! for from ° broad words, and 'cause he 

fail'd 
His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear, 
Macduff lives in disgrace : sir, can you tell 
Where he bestows himself ? 

Lord. The son of Duncan, 

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth, 
Lives in the English court, and is received 
Of the most pious Edward with such grace 
That the malevolence of fortune nothing 
Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff 
Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid 30 

To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward : 
That by the help of these, with Him above 
To ratify the work, we may again 
Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, 
Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives, 
Do faithful homage and receive free honours : 
All which we pine for now : and this report 
Hath so exasperate the king that he 
Prepares for some attempt of Avar. 



70 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Len. Sent he to Macduff? 

Lord. He did : and with an absolute " Sir,° not I," 40 
The cloudy ° messenger turns me ° his back, 
And hums, as who should say " You'll rue the time 
That clogs me with this answer." 

Len. And that well might 

Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance 
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel 
Fly to the court of England and unfold 
His message ere he come, that a swift blessing 
May soon return to this our suffering country 
Under a hand accursed ! 

Lord. I'll send my prayers with him. 

[Exeunt. 



ACT FOURTH. — Scene I. 

A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. 

Thunder. Enter the three Witches. 

First Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd. 
Sec. Witch. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined. 
Third Witch. Harpier cries "'Tis time, 'tis time.*' 
First Witch. Round about the cauldron ero : 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 71 

In the poison'd entrails throw. 
Toad, that under cold stone 
Days and nights has thirty one 
Swelter'd venom ° sleeping got, 
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble; 10 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Fillet ° of a fenny snake, 
In the cauldron boil and bake ; 
Eye of newt and toe of frog, 
Wool of bat and tongue of dog, 
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, 
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, 
For a charm of powerful trouble, 
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 20 

Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Third Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, 
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf 
Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark, 
Koot of hemlock digg'd i' the dark, 
Liver of blaspheming Jew, 
Gall of goat and slips of yew 
Silver'd in the moon's eclipse, 
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, 



72 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Finger of birth-strangled babe 30 

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab, 
Make the gruel thick and slab: 
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron, 
For the ingredients of our cauldron. 

All. Double, double toil and trouble ; 
Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 

Sec. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood, 
Then the charm is firm and good. 

Enter Hecate to the other three Witches. 

Hec. 0, well done! I commend your pains; 
And every one shall share i' the gains : 40 

And now about the cauldron sing, 
Like elves and fairies in a ring, 
Enchanting all that you put in. 

[ Music and a song : " Black spirits, " &c. 

[Hecate retires. 

Sec. Witch. By the pricking ° of my thumbs, 
Something wicked this way comes : 
Open, locks, 
Whoever knocks ! 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 73 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight 
hags ! 
What is't you do ? 

All. A deed without a name. 

3facb. I conjure you, by that which you profess, 50 
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me : 
Though you untie the winds and let them fight 
Against the churches ; though th$ yesty waves 
Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down ; 
Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
Their heads to their foundations ; though the treasure 
Of nature's germins ° tumble all together, 
Even till destruction sicken ; answer me 60 

To what I ask you. 

First Witch. Speak. 

Sec. Witch. Demand. 

Third Witch. We'll answer. 

First Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our 
mouths, 
Or from our masters ? 

Macb. Call 'em, let me see 'em. 

First Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten 



4 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 



Her nine farrow ° ; grease that's sweaten 
From the murderer's gibbet throw 
Into the name. 

All. Come, high or low ; 

Thyself and office deftly show ! 

Thunder. First Apparition ° : a?i armed Head. 

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, — 
First Witch. He knows thy thought : 

Hear his speech, but say thou nought. 70 

First App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! beware 
Macduff ; 
Beware the thane of Fife. Dismiss me: enough. 

[Descends. 
Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution 
thanks ; 
Thou hast harp'd my fear aright : but one word more, — 
First Witch. He will not be commanded : here's 
another, 
More potent than the first. 

Thunder. Second Apparition ° : a bloody Child. 

Sec. App. Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 
Macb. Had I three ears, Fid hear thee. 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH To 

Sec. A])]). Be bloody, bold, and resolute ; laugh to 
scorn 
The power of man, for none of woman born 80 

Shall harm Macbeth. [Descends. 

Macb. Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of 
thee? 
But yet I'll make assurance doubly sure, 
And take a bond of fate : thou shalt not live; 
That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, 
And sleep in spite of thunder. 

Thunder. Third Apparition : a Child crowned, with a 
tree in Ids hand. 

What is this, 
That rises like the issue of a king, 
And wears upon his baby brow the round 
And top of sovereignty ? 

All. Listen, but speak not to't. 

Third App. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no 
care 90 

Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are : 
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until 
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill 
Shall come against him. [Descends. 



76 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Macb. That will never be : 

Who can impress the forest, bid the tree 
Unfix his earth-bound root ? Sweet bodements ! good ! 
Rebellion's head, rise never, till the wood 
Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth 
Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath 
To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart 100 

Throbs to know one thing : tell me, if your art 
Can tell so much : shall Banquo's issue ever 
Reign in this kingdom ? 

All. Seek to know no more. 

Macb. I will be satisfied : deny me this, 
And an eternal curse fall on you ! Let me know : 
Why sinks that cauldron ? and what noise is this ? 

[Hautboys. 

First Witch. Show ! 

Sec. Witch. Show ! 

Third Witch. Show! 

All. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart; no 

Come like shadows, so depart ! 

A show of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand; 
Banquo's Ghost following. 

Macb. Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo: 
down ! 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 77 

Thy crown does sear mine eye-balls. And thy hair, 

Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first. 

A third is like the former. Filthy hags ! 

Why do you show me this ? A fourth ! Start, 

eyes ! 
What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ? 
Another yet ! A seventh ! I'll see no more : 
And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass 
Which shows me many more ; and some I see 120 

That two-fold balls ° and treble sceptres ° carry : 
Horrible sight ! Now I see 'tis true ; 
For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me, 
And points at them for his. What, is this so? 

First Witch. Ay, sir, all this is so : but why 
Stands Macbeth thus amazedly ? 
Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
And show the best of our delights : 
I'll charm the air to give a sound, 
While you perform your antic round, 130 

That this great king may kindly say 
Our duties did his welcome pay. 

[Music. The Witches dance and then vanish, 
with Hecate. 

Macb. Where are they ? Gone ? Let this perni- 
cious hour 



78 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Stand aye accursed in tlie calendar ! 
Come in, without there ! 

Enter Lennox. 

Len. What's your grace's will ? 

Mad). Saw you the weird sisters ? 

Len. No, my lord. 

Macb. Came they not by you ? 

Len. No indeed, my lord. 

Macb. Infected be the air whereon they ride, 
And damn'd all those that trust them ! I did hear 
The galloping of horse : who was't come by ? 140 

Len. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you 
word 
Macduff is fled to England. 

Macb. Fled to England ! 

Len. Ay, my good lord. 

Macb. [_Aside~\ Time, thou anticipatest my dread 
exploits : 
The flighty purpose never is o'ertook 
Unless the deed go with it : from this moment 
The very firstlings of my heart shall be 
The firstlings of my hand. And even now, 
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and 
done: 



Scene 2.] Til E TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 79 

The castle of Macduff I will surprise ° ; 150 

Seize upon Fife ; give to the edge o' the sword 
His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls 
That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool ; 
This deed I'll do before this purpose cool : 
But no more sights ! — Where are these gentle- 
men ? 
Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt. 

Scene II. 

Fife. Macduff's castle. 

Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross. 

L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the 
land ? 

Boss. You must have patience, madam. 

L. Macd. He had none : 

His flight was madness : when our actions do not, 
Our fears do make us traitors. 

Ross. You know not 

Whether it was his wisdom or hrs fear. 

L. Macd. Wisdom ! to leave his wife, to leave his 
babes, 
His mansion and his titles, in a place 



80 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not ; 

He wants the natural touch : for the poor wren, 

The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 10 

Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. 

All is the fear and nothing is the love ; 

As little is the wisdom, where the flight 

So runs against all reason. 

Ross. My dearest coz, 

I pray you, school yourself : but, for your husband, 
He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows 
The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much 

further : 
But cruel are the times, when we are traitors 
And do not know ourselves ; when we hold rumour ° 
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear, 20 
But float upon a wild and violent sea 
Each way and move. I take my leave of you : 
Shall not be long but I'll be here again : 
Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward 
To what they were before. My pretty cousin, 
Blessing upon you ! 

L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless. 

Ross. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, 
It would be my disgrace and your discomfort : 
I take my leave at once. [Exit. 



Scene .2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 81 

L. Macd. Sirrah, your father's dead : 30 

And what will you do now ? How will you live ? 

Son. As birds do, mother. 

L. Macd. What, with worms and flies ? 

Son. With what I get, I mean ; and so do they. 

L. Macd. Poor bird ! thou'ldst never fear the net 
nor lime, 
The pitfall nor the gin. 

Son. Why should I, mother ? Poor birds they are 
not set for. 
My father is not dead, for all your saying. 

L. Macd. Yes, he is dead, how wilt thou do for a 
father ? 

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband ? 

L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any mar- 
ket. 40 

Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again. 

L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit, and yet, i' 
faith, 
With wit enough for thee. 

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother ? 

L. Macd. Ay, that he was. 

Son. What is a traitor ? 

L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies. 

Son. And be all traitors that do so? 



82 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

L. Macd. Every one that does so is a traitor, and 
must be hanged. 50 

Son. And must they all be hanged that swear and 
lie? 

L. Macd. Every one. 

Son. Who must hang them ? 

L. Macd. Why, the honest men. 

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools ; for there 
are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men 
and hang np them. 

L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey ! 
But how wilt thou do for a father ? 60 

Son. If he were dead, you'ld weep for him : if you 
would not, it were a good sign that I should quickly 
have a new father. 

L. Macd. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st ! 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. Bless you, fair dame ! I am not to you known, 
Though in your state of honour ° I am perfect. 
I doubt some danger does approach you nearly : 
If you will take a homely man's advice, 
Be not found here ; hence, with your little ones. 
To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage ; 70 

To do worse ° to you were fell cruelty, 






Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 83 

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you ! 
I dare abide no longer. [Exit. 

L. Macd. Whither should I fly ? 

I have done no harm. But I remember now 
I am in this earthly world, where to do harm 
Is often laudable, to do good sometime 
Accounted dangerous folly : why then, alas, 
Do I put up that womanly defence, 
To say I have done no harm ? — What are these faces ? 

Enter Murderers. 

First Mur. Where is your husband ? So 

L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctihed 
Where such as thou mayst find him. 

First Mur. He's a traitor. 

Son. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd ° villain ! 

First Mur. What, you egg I 

[Stabbing him. 
Young fry of treachery ! 

Son. . He has kill'd me, mother : 

Run away, I pray you ! [Dies. 

[Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murderer I" 
Exeunt Murderers, following her. 



84 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Scene III. 

England. Before the King's palace. 

Enter Malcolm and Macduff. 

Mai. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there 
Weep our sad bosoms empty. 

Macd. Let us rather 

Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men 
Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom : each new morn 
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows 
Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds 
As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out 
Like syllable of dolour. 

Mai. What I believe, I'll wail : 

What know, believe ; and what I can redress, 
As I shall find the time to friend, I will. 10 

What you have spoke, it may be so perchance. 
This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, 
Was once thought honest : you have loved him well ; 
He hath not touch'd you yet. * I am young; but some- 
thing 
You may deserve ° of him through me ; and wisdom 
To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb 
To appease an angry god. 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 85 

Macd. I am not treacherous. 

Mai. But Macbeth is. 

A good and virtuous nature may recoil ° 
In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your 
pardon ; 20 

That which you. are, my thoughts cannot transpose : 
Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell : 
Though all things foul would wear the brows of 

grace, 
Yet grace must still look so. 

Macd. I have lost my hopes. 

Mai. Perchance even there where I did find my 
doubts. 
Why in that rawness left you wife and child, 
Those precious motives, those strong knots of love, 
Without leave-taking ? I pray you, 
Let not my jealousies be your dishonours, 
But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just, 30 
Whatever I shall think. 

Macd. Bleed, bleed, poor country : 

Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, 
For goodness dare not check thee : wear thou thy 

wrongs ; 
The title is affeerd. Fare thee well, lord : 
I would not be the villain that thou think 'st 



86 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp 
And the rich East to boot. 

Mai. Be not offended : 

1 speak not as in absolute fear of you. 
I think our country sinks beneath the yoke ; 
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash 40 

Is added to her wounds : I think withal 
There would be hands uplifted in my right ; 
And here from gracious England have I offer 
Of goodly thousands: but for all this, 
When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head, 
Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country 
Shall have more vices than it had before, 
More suffer and more sundry ways than ever, 
By him that shall succeed. 

Macd. What should he be ? 

Mai. It ° is myself I mean: in whom I know - 

All the particulars of vice so grafted 
That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth 
Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state 
Esteem him as a lamb, being compared 
With my confineless harms. 

Macd. Not in the legions 

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd 
In evils to top Macbeth. 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 87 

Mai. I grant him bloody, 

Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful, 
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin 
That has a name : but there's no bottom, none, 60 

In my voluptuousness : your wives, your daughters, 
Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up 
The cistern of my lust, and my desire 
All continent impediments would o'erbear, 
That did oppose my will : better Macbeth 
Than such an one to reign. 

Maccl. Boundless intemperance 

In nature is a tyranny; it hath been 
The untimely emptying of the happy throne, 
And fall of many kings. But fear not yet 
To take upon you what is yours : you may 70 

Convey ° your pleasures in a spacious plenty, 
And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink : 
We have willing dames enough ; there cannot be 
That vulture in you, to devour so many 
As will to greatness dedicate themselves, 
Finding it so inclined. 

Mai. With this there grows 

In my most ill-composed affection such 
A stanchless avarice that, were I king, 
I should cut off the nobles for their lands, 



88 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Desire his jewels and tins other's house: 80 

And my more-having would be as a sauce 
To make me hunger more, that I should forge 
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, 
Destroying them for wealth. 

Macd. This avarice 

Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root 
Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been 
The sword of our slain kings : yet do not fear ; 
Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will 
Of your mere own : all these are portable, 
With other graces weigh'd. 90 

Mai. But I have none : the king-becoming graces, 
As justice, verity, temperance, stableness, 
Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness, 
Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude, 
I have no relish of them, but abound 
In the division of each several crime, 
Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should 
Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, 
Uproar ° the universal peace, confound 
All unity on earth. 

Macd. Scotland, Scotland ! 100 

Mai. If such a one be fit to govern, speak: 
I am as I have spoken. 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 89 

Macd, Fit to govern ! 

No, not to live. nation miserable ! 
With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd, 
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again, 
Since that the truest issue of thy throne 
By his own interdiction stands accursed, 
And does blaspheme his breed ? Thy royal father 
Was a most sainted king : the queen that bore thee, 
Of tener upon her knees than on her feet, no 

Died ° every day she lived. Fare thee well ! 
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself 
Have banish' d me from Scotland. my breast, 
Thy hope ends here ! 

Mai. Macduff, this noble passion, 

Child of integrity, hath from my soul 
Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts 
To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth 
By many of these trains hath sought to win me 
Into his power ; and modest wisdom plucks me 
From over-credulous haste : but God above 120 

Deal between thee and me ! .for even now 
I put myself to thy direction, and 
Unspeak mine own detraction ; here abjure 
The taints and blames I laid upon myself, 
For strangers to my nature. I am yet 



90 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Unknown to woman, never was forsworn, 
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own, 
At no time broke my faith, would not betray 
The devil to his fellow, and delight 
No less in truth than life : my first false speaking 130 
Was this upon myself : what I am truly, 
Is thine and my poor country's to command : 
Whither indeed, before thy here-approach, 
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men, 
Already at a point, was setting forth. 
Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness 
Be like our warranted quarrel ! Why are you silent ? 
Macd. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once 
Tis hard to reconcile. 

Enter a Doctor. 

Mai. Well, more anon. Comes the king forth, I pray 
you ? 140 

Doct. Ay, sir ; there are a crew of wretched souls 
That stay his cure : their malady convinces 
The great assay of art ; but at his touch, 
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand, 
They presently amend. 

Mai. I thank you, doctor. [Exit Doctor. 

MarrJ. What's the disease he means ? 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 91 

Mai. 'Tis call'd the evil : 

A most miraculous work in this good king ; 
Which often, since my here-remain in England, 
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven, 
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people, 
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, 150 

The mere despair of surgery, he cures, 
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, 
Put on with holy prayers : and 'tis spoken, 
To the succeeding royalty he leaves 
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue 
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, 
And sundry blessings hang about his throne 
That speak him full of grace. 

Enter Ross. 

Macd. See, who comes here ? 

Mai. My countryman ; but yet I know him not. 160 

Macd. My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither. 

Mai. I know him now : good God, betimes remove 
The means that makes us strangers ! 

Boss. Sir, amen. 

Macd. Stands Scotland where it did ? 

Boss. Alas, poor country ! 

Almost afraid to know itself ! It cannot 
Be call'd our mother, but our grave : where nothing, 



92 THE TRAGEDY OE MACBETH [Act IV. 

But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile ; 
Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air, 
Are made, not mark'd ; where violent sorrow seems 
A modern ecstasy : the dead man's knell 170 

Is there scarce ask'd for who ; and good men's lives 
Expire before the flowers in their caps, 
Dying or ere they sicken. 

Macd. 0, relation 

Too nice, and yet too true ! 

Mai. What's the newest grief ? 

Boss. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker; 
Each minute teems a new one. 

Macd. How does my wife ? 

Ross. Why, well. 

Macd. And all my children ? 

Boss. Well too. 

Macd. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace ? 

Boss. No ; they were well at peace when I did 
leave 'em. 

Macd. Be not a niggard of your speech : how 
goes't ? 180 

Boss. When I came hither to transport the tidings, 
Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumour * 
Of many worthy fellows that were out ; 
Which was to my belief witness'd the rather, 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 93 

For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot : 
Now is the time of help ; your eye in Scotland 
Would create soldiers, make our women fight, 
To doff their dire distresses. 

Mai. Be't their comfort 

We are coming thither : gracious England hath 
Lent us good Si ward and ten thousand men ; r 9 o 

An older and a better soldier none 
That Christendom gives out. 

Boss. Would I could answer 

This comfort with the like ! But I have words 
That would be howl'd out in the desert air. 
Where hearing should not latch them. 

Macd. What concern they ? 

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief 
Due to some single breast ? 

Ross. No mind that's honest 

But in it shares some woe, though the main part 
Pertains to you alone. 

Macd. If it be mine, 

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it. 200 

Boss. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
That ever yet they heard. 

Macd. Hum ! I guess at it. 



( J4 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act IV. 

Ross. Your castle is surprised ; your wife and babes 
Savagely slaughtered : to relate the manner, 
Were, on the quarry of these murder'd deer, 
To add the death of you. 

Mai. Merciful heaven ! 

What, man ! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows ; 
Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break. 210 

Macd. My children too ? 

Ross. Wife, children, servants, all 

That could be found. 

Macd. And I must be from thence ! 

My wife kill'cl too ? 

Ross. I have said. 

Mai. Be comforted : 

Let's make us medicines of our great revenge, 
To cure this deadly grief. 

Macd. He has no children. All my pretty ones ? 
Did you say all ? hell-kite ! All ? 
AVhat, all my pretty chickens and their dam 
At one fell swoop ? 

Mai. Dispute it like a man. 

Macd. I shall do so ; 220 

But I must also feel it as a man : 
I cannot but remember such things were, 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 95 

That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, 
And would not take their part ? Sinful Macduff, 
They were all struck for thee ! naught ° that I am, 
Not for their own demerits, but for mine, 
Fell slaughter on their souls : heaven rest them now ! 

Mai. Be this the whetstone of your sword : let grief 
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it. 229 

Macd. 0, I could play the woman with mine eyes, 
And braggart with my tongue ! But, gentle heavens, 
Cut short all intermission ; front to front 
Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself ; 
Within my sword's length set him ; if he 'scape, 
Heaven forgive him too ! 

Mai. This tune goes manly. 

Come, go we to the king ; our power is ready ; 
Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth 
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above 
Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you 

may ; 
The night is long that never finds the day. 240 

[Exeunt. 



9(3 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

ACT FIFTH. — Scene I. 

Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle. 
Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman. 

Doct. I have two nights watched with yon, bnt can 
perceive no truth in your report. When was it she 
last walked ? 

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I have 
seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon 
her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write 
upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again return 
to bed ; yet all this while in a most fast sleep. 

Doct. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at 10 
once the benefit of sleep and do the effects of watch- 
ing ! In this slumbery agitation, besides her walking 
and other actual performances, what at any time, have 
you heard her say ? 

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her. 

Doct. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you 
should. 

Gent. Neither to you nor any one, having no wit- 20 
ness to confirm my speech. 



Scene 1.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 97 

Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper. 

Lo you, here she comes ! This is her very guise, and, 
upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her ; stand close. 

Doct. How came she by that light ? 

Gent. Why, it stood by her : she has light by her 
continually ; 'tis her command. 

Doct. You see, her eyes are open. 

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut. 30 

Doct. What is it she does now ? Look, how she 
rubs her hands. 

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem 
thus washing her hands ° : I have known her continue 
in this a quarter of an hour. 

Lady 31. Yet here's a spot. 

Doct. Hark ! she speaks : I will set down what 
conies from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more 
strongly. 

Lady M. Out, damned spot ! out, I say ! One : 40 
two : why, then 'tis time to do't. Hell is murky. 
Fie, my lord, fie ! a soldier, and afeard ? What need 
we fear who knows it, when none can call our power 
to account ? Yet who would have thought the old 
man to have had so much blood in him ? 

Doct. Do you mark that ? 



98 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife; where is 
she now ° ? What, will these hands ne'er be clean ? 
No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that : you mar 
all with this starting. 50 

Doct. Go to, go to; you have known what you 
should not. 

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure 
of that : heaven knows what she has known. 

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still : all the 
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 
Oh, oh, oh ! 

Doct. What a sigh is there ! The heart is sorely 
charged. 60 

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom 
for the dignity of the whole body. 

Doct. Well, well, well, — 

Gent. Pray God it be, sir. 

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice : yet I 
have known those which have walked in their sleep 
who have died holily in their beds. 

Lady M. Wash your hands ; put on your night- 
gown ; look not so pale : I tell you yet again, Banquo's 
buried ° ; he cannot come out on 's grave. 70 

Doct. Even so ° ? 

Lady M. To bed, to bed ; there's knocking at the 



Scene 2.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 99 

gate : come, come, come, come, give me your hand : 
what's done cannot be undone : to bed, to bed, to 
bed. [Exit. 

Doct. Will she go now to bed ? 

Gent. Directly. 

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad : unnatural deeds 
Do breed unnatural troubles : infected minds 80 

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets : 
More needs she the divine than the physician. 
God, God forgive us all ! Look after her ; 
Remove from her the means of all annoyance, 
And still keep eyes upon her. So good night : 
My mind she has mated and amazed my sight : 
I think, but dare not speak. 

Gent. Good night, good doctor. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene II. 

The country near Dunsinane. 

Drum and colours. Enter Menteith, Caithness, 
Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers. 

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm, 
His uncle Siward and the good Macduff : 
Revenges burn in them ; for their dear causes 



100 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm 
Excite the mortified man.° 

Aug. Near Birnam wood 

Shall we well meet them; that way are they com- 
ing. 

Caith. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother ? 

Len. For certain, sir, he is not : I have a file 
Of all the gentry : there is Si ward's son, 
And many unrough youths, that even now 10 

Protest their first of manhood. 

Ment. What does the tyrant ? 

Caith. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies : 
Some say he's mad ; others, that lesser hate him, 
Do call it valiant fury : but, for certain, 
He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause ° 
Within the belt of rule. 

Aug. Now does he feel 

His secret murders sticking on his hands ; 
Now minutely ° revolts upbraid his faith-breach ; 
Those he commands move only in command, 
Nothing in love : now does he feel his title 20 

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe 
Upon a dwarfish thief. 

Ment. Who then shall blame 

His pester'd senses to recoil and start, 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 101 

When all that is within him does condemn 
Itself for being there ? 

Caith. Well, march we on, 

To give obedience where 'tis truly owed : 
Meet we the medicine ° of the sickly weal, 
And with him pour we, in our country's purge, 
Each drop of us. 

Len. Or so much as it needs 

To dew the sovereign ° flower and drown the weeds. 
Make we our march towards Birnam. 31 

[Exeunt, marching. 

Scene III. 

Dunsinane. A room in the castle. 

Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants. 

Macb. Bring me no more reports ; let them fly all : 
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane 
I cannot taint with fear.° What's the boy Malcolm ? 
Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know 
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus : 
"Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman 
Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false 
thanes, 



102 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

And mingle with the English epicures : 

The mind I sway by and the heart I bear 

Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear. 10 

Enter a Servant. 

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon ! 
Where got'st thou that goose look ? 

Serv. There is ten thousand — 

Macb. Geese, villain ? 

Serv. Soldiers, sir. 

Macb. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear, 
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch ? ° 
Death of thy soul ! those linen cheeks of thine 
Are counsellors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face ? 

Serv. The English force, so please you. 

Macb. Take thy face hence. [Exit Servant. 

Sey ton ! ° — I am sick at heart, 
When I behold — Seyton, I say ! — This push 20 

vWill cheer ° me ever, or disseat me now. 
1 have lived long enough : my way of life ° 
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, 
And that which should accompany old ° age, 
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
I must not look to have ; but, in their stead, 
Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honour, breath. 



Scene 3.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 103 

Which the poor heart would fain deny, and dare not. 
XSeyton ! 

Enter Seytox. 

Sey. What's your gracious pleasure ? 

Macb. What news more ? 30 

Sey. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported. 

Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be 
hack'd. 
Give me my armour. 

Sey. 'Tis not needed yet. 

Macb. I'll put it on. 
Send out moe horses, skirr the country round ; 
Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armour. 
How does your patient, doctor ? 

Doct. Not so sick, my lord, 

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, 
That keep her from her rest. 

Macb. Cure her of that. 

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, 40 

/ Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, 
1 Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 

And with some sweet oblivious antidote 
I Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart ? 



104 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Doct. Therein the patient 

Must minister to himself. 

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. 
Come, put mine armour on : give me my staff. 
Seyton, send out.° Doctor, the thanes ny from me. 
Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast 50 
The water of my land, find her disease 
And purge it to a sound aud pristine health, 
I would applaud thee to the very echo, 
That should applaud again. Pull't off, I say. 
What rhubarb, senna, or what purgative drug, 
Would scour these English hence ? Hear'st thou of 
them ? 

Doct. Ay, my good lord ; your royal preparation 
Makes us hear something. 

Macb. Bring it after me. 

I will not be afraid of death and bane 
Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane. 60 

Doct. [Aside] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear, 
Profit again should hardly draw me here. [Exeunt. 



Scene 4.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 105 

Scene IV. 

Country near Birnam wood. 

Brum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward and 
his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness, Angus, 
Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching. 

Mai. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand 
That chambers will be safe. 

Ment. We doubt it nothing. 

Siw. What wood is this before us ? 

Ment. The wood of Birnam. 

Mai. Let every soldier hew him down a bough, 
And bear't before him : thereby shall we shadow 
The numbers of our host, and make discovery 
Err in report of us. 

Soldiers. It shall be done. 

Siw. We learn no other but the confident tyrant 
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure 
Our setting down before't. 

Mai. 'Tis his main hope : 10 

For where there is advantage to be given, 
Both more and less have given him the revolt, 
And none serve with him but constrained things 
Whose hearts are absent too. 



106 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Macd. Let our just censures 

Attend the true event, and put we on 
Industrious soldiership. 

Siw. The time approaches, 

That will with due decision make us know 
What we shall say we have and what we owe. 
Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate, 
But certain issue strokes must arbitrate : 20 

Towards which advance the war. [Exeunt, marching. 

Scexe V. 

Dunsinane. Within the castle. 

Enter Macbeth, Seytox, and Soldiers, with drum and 
colours. 

JIacb. Hang out our banners on the outward walls; 
The cry is still " They come " : our castle's strength 
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie 
Till famine and the ague eat them up: 
Were they not forced ° with those that should be ours, 
We .might have met them dareful, beard to beard, 
And beat them backward home. 

\_A cry of women within. 
What is that noise ? 



Scene 5.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 107 

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord. [Exit. 

Macb. I have almost forgot the taste of fears : 
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd 10 
To hear a night- shriek, and my fell of hair 
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 
As life were in't : I have snpp'd full with horrors; 
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, 
Cannot once start me. 

Re-enter Seytox. 

Wherefore was that cry ? 

Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead. 

Macb. She should have died hereafter ; 
There would have been a time for such a word. 
rTo-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 20 

To the last syllable of recorded time ; 
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle ° 
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
And then is heard no more: it is a tale 
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
Signifving nothing. 






' 






108 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Enter a Messenger. 

Thou comest to use thy tongue ; thy story quickly. 

Mess. Gracious my lord, 30 

I should report that which I say I saw, 
But know not how to do it. 

Macb. Well, say, sir. 

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill, 
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought, 
The wood began to move. 

Macb. Liar and slave ! 

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so : 
Within this three mile may you see it coming ; 
I say, a moving grove. 

Macb. If thou speak'st false, 

Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, 
Till famine cling ° thee : if thy speech be sooth, 40 
I care not if thou dost for me as much. 
I pull in resolution, and begin 
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend 
That lies like truth : " Fear not, till Birnam wood 
Do come to Dunsinane ; " and now a wood 
Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out! 
If this which he avouches does appear, 
There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here. 
I 'gin to be a-weary of the sun, 



Scene 6.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 109 

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone. 50 
King the alarum-bell! Blow, wind! come, wrack! 
At least we'll die with harness on our back. [Exeunt. 



Scene VI. 

Dunsinane. Before the castle. 

Drum and colours. Enter Malcolm, old Siward, 
Macduff, and their Army, with boughs. 

Mai. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw 
down, 
And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle, 
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son, 
Lead our first battle : worthy Macduff and we 
Shall take upon 's what else remains to do, 
According to our order. 

Siw. Fare you well. 

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night, 
Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight. 

Macd. Make all our trumpets speak; give them all 
breath, 
Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death. 10 

[Exeunt. 



110 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V, 

Scene VII. 

Another part of the field. 

Alarums. Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, 
But bear-like I must fight the course. What's he 
That was not born of woman ? Such a one 
Am I to fear, or none. 

Enter young Siward. 

To. Siw. What is thy name ? 

Macb. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it. 

Yo. She. No ; though thou call'st thyself a hotter 
name 
Than any is in hell. 

Macb. My name's Macbeth. 

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce a 
title 
More hateful to mine ear. 

Macb. No, nor more fearful. 

Yo. She. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant ; with my 
sword io 

I'll prove the lie thou speak' st. 

[They fight, and young Siward is slain. 



Scene 7.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 111 

Macb. Thou wast born of woman. 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Exit. 

Alarums. Enter Macduff. 

Maccl. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy 

face! 
If thou be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, 
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still. 
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms 
Are hired to bear their staves : either thou, Macbeth, 
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge, 
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst 

be; 20 

By this great clatter, one of greatest note 
Seems bruited : let me find him, fortune ! 
And more I beg not. [Exit. Alarums. 

Enter Malcolm and old Siward. 

Siw. This way, my lord; the castle's gently 
rendered : 
The tyrant's people on both sides do fight ; 
The noble thanes do bravely in the war ; 
The day almost itself professes yours, 
And little is to do. 



112 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Mai. We have met with foes 

That strike beside us. 

Siw. Enter, sir, the castle. 

[Exeunt. Alarum. 

Scene VIII. 

Another part of the field. 

Enter Macbeth. 

Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and die 
On mine own sword ? whiles I see lives, the gashes 
Do better upon them. 

Enter Macduff. 

Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn! 

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee : 
But get thee back ; my soul is too much charged 
With blood of thine already. 

Macd. I have no words : 

My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain 
Than terms can give thee out ! [They fight. 

* Macb. Thou losest labour : 

As easy mayst thou the intrenehant air 
With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed : 10 



Scene 8.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 113 

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests; 

I bear a charmed life, which must not yield 

To one of woman born. 

Macd. Despair thy charm, 

And let the angel whom thou still hast served 
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb 
Untimely ripp'd. 

Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so, 
For it hath cow'd my better part of man ! 
And be these juggling fiends no more believed, 
That palter with us in a double sense ; 20 

That keep the word of promise to our ear, 
And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee. 

Macd. Then yield thee, coward, 
And live to be the show and gaze o' the time : 
We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are, 
Painted upon a pole, and underwrit, 
"Here may you see the tyrant." 

Macb, I will not yield, 

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet, 
And to be baited with the rabble's curse. 
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane, 30 

And thou opposed, being of no woman born, 
Yet I will try the last : before my body 
I throw my warlike shield: lay on, Macduff; 



114 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

And clamn'd be him that first cries " Hold, enough ! " 
[Exeunt, fighting. Alarums. 

Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colours, 
Malcolm, old Siward, Ross, the other Thanes, 
and Soldiers. 

Mai. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived. 

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see, 
So great a day as this is cheaply bought. 

Mai. Macduff is missing, and your noble son. 

Ross. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt : 
He only lived but till he was a man; 40 

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd 
In the unshrinking station where he fought, 
But like a man he died. 

Siw. Then he is dead ? 

Ross. Ay, and brought off the field : your cause of 
sorrow 
Must not be measured by his worth, for then 
It hath no end. 

Siw. Had he his hurts before ? 

Ross. Ay, on the front. 

Siw. Why then, God's soldier be he ! 

Had I as many sons as I have hairs, 



Scene 8.] THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH 115 

I would not wish them to a fairer death : 
And so his knell is knoll'd. 

Mai. He's worth more sorrow, 50 

And that I'll spend for him. 

Siw. He's worth no more : 

They say he parted well and paid his score : 
And so God be with him ! Here comes newer com- 
fort. 

lie-enter Macduff with Macbeth's head. 

Macd. Hail, king ! for so thou art : behold where 
stands 
The usurper's cursed head : the time is free : 
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl, 
That speak my salutation in their minds ; 
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine : 
Hail, King of Scotland ! 

All Hail, King of Scotland ! 

[Flourish. 

Mai. We shall not spend a large expense of time 60 
Before we reckon with your several loves, 
And make us even with you. My thanes and kins- 
men, 
Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland 
In such an honour named. What's more to do. 



116 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH [Act V. 

Which would be planted newly with the time, 

As calling home our exiled friends abroad 

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny, 

Producing forth the cruel ministers 

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, 

Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands 70 

Took off her life ; this, and what needful else 

That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace 

We will perforin in measure, time and place : 

So thanks to all at once and to each one, 

Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone. 

[Flourish. Exeunt. 



NOTES 



Act I, Scene I 

This first scene forms a remarkable introduction to the play. 
The barren and desolate heath, the dark thunder-clouds, the 
approaching storm, and above all the weird, misshapen forms 
of the witches, now concealed and now revealed by the eddying 
mists, all combine to excite intense, almost breathless interest 
in the man for whose weal or woe all these phenomena have 
been called into existence. The way in which these striking 
scene-effects serve to concentrate the attention of the audience 
upon the hero, as yet unseen and unknown, is an illustration 
of the marvellous art of the author. The scene is short. There 
is no description of, and only a single reference to Macbeth, 
yet through all the weird horrors of the setting his personality 
is the one absorbing feature. 

Here is a man in the grasp of supernatural powers. For him 
these uncanny beings have summoned the storm, and are ob- 
viously about to exercise their hellish arts. Evidently great 
issues centre around this unknown hero, and his advent into 
the action of the play is eagerly awaited. 

1. 2. or in rain. The question is not whether they should meet 
in " thunder, lightning, or in rain, 1 ' but when they should meet. 
Would not the meaning be stronger if and were substituted for 
or 9 In some editions this change has been made. 

117 



118 NOTES 

1. 3. hurley-burley is of somewhat doubtful origin. It may 
be derived from the French hurlu-burlu, and it may have been 
formed by onomatopoeia as suggested by Henderson. It means 
an uproar or tumult, and here refers to the battle. 

1. 3. A battle was even then in progress between the Scottish 
forces led by Macbeth and Banquo and the army of the Nor- 
wegian king. 

1. 11. This passage shows the inverted moral sense of the 
witches. Their natures were so depraved that they found their 
happiness in evil, and chose the darkness rather than the day 
for their deeds. 

Scene II 

The characters of Duncan and Malcolm were introduced here 
as foils to that of Macbeth. At this time bravery was considered 
the highest virtue. Yet both the king and the prince remain 
tamely in camp while a battle is being fought with an invading 
enemy and the fate of the kingdom is trembling in the balance. 
Macbeth is commanding the Scottish forces in the midst of the 
conflict, where Duncan should have been. Malcolm has shown 
more bravery than his father, for he has at least been in the 
fight, but after barely escaping capture has fled to his tent and 
left the battle-field while the result was still uncertain. Even 
the sergeant appears more worthy than this royal pair, for he 
has not only fought and received honorable wounds, but he has 
been instrumental in saving the prince from capture. By con- 
trast the character of Macbeth shines most brilliantly. The 
sergeant garrulously descants upon his bravery, and the calm 
and evidently envious Ross bears reluctant witness to his suc- 
cess while announcing the victory. At once the thought forces 
itself upon the audience : " Here is a king who is unworthy of. 



NOTES 119 

his high position, no matter how gentle and virtuous he may be. 
Does not Macbeth possess the true qualifications for the kingly 
office?" 

1. 1. bloody. "This word reappears on almost every page 
and runs like a red thread through the whole piece ; in no other 
of Shakespeare's dramas is it so frequent." — Bodenstadt. 

1. 2. The latest news of the revolt. While this war was di- 
rected against a foreign prince, at least one of the king's vassals 
had joined the invader. 

1. 3. sergeant. Holinshed says that the king sent a ser- 
geant-at-arms to bring up the chief offenders to answer the 
charges made against them, but they misused and slew the mes- 
senger. Shakespeare took the name from Holinshed, and ig- 
nored the rest of the story. Sergeant is derived from the 
French sergent, which in turn conies from the Latin serviens, 
which originally meant a common foot-soldier. 

1. 9. By clinging together they prevent each other from ex- 
ercising their art. 

1. 10. for to that = to that end. 

1. 13. Kerns. A name given in Ireland to light-armed sol- 
diers, in distinction from " gall owgl asses " or heavy-armed 
soldiers. Notice the use of of. 

1. 15. Showed. The meaning is that although Fortune 
smiled upon him, she yet deceived him. 

1. 17. Disdaining Fortune. Since Fortune seemed to smile 
upon the rebel, Macbeth disdained her and conquered as valor's 
minion. 

1. 23. Would not this scene have been more powerful and 



120 NOTES 

realistic if the deeds described had been performed upon the 
stage within sight of the audience ? 

Observe that this course would have left no room for the 
play of imagination, whereas now fancy is unchecked. 

11. 25-28. As from the sky comes the health-giving radiance 
of the sun and the death-dealing storms, so discomfort comes 
from the same spring whence comfort comes. 

1. 31. Looking for a favorable opportunity. 

1. 32. Furbished. Polished, hence unused, fresh. 

1. 35. Notice that although nothing has been previously said 
about Banquo, the king is unwilling to give all the honor to 

Macbeth. 

1. 36. As a substantive sooth means truth. 

1. 37. What figure of speech is this where the word crack is 
used for the load which produces the crack or report ? 

1. 40. "To make this place as memorable as another Gol- 
gotha." 

1. 41. The sergeant's eagerness to sing Macbeth's praises has 
made him forget his own wounds. Again the thought is forced 
upon the audience, " How great and worthy a man is this Mac- 
beth to inspire such enthusiasm in a subordinate ! " 

1. 45. thane is from the Anglo-Saxon, and means literally a 
servant. It came to mean the king's servant, and is defined as 
"an Anglo-Saxon nobleman, inferior in rank to an earl and 
ealdorman." 

1. 46. seems may be taken in the sense of appears, although 
it has been suggested that it is a misprint for comes. 

1. 49. One critic says : " The meaning seems to be, not that 



NOTES 121 

the Norwegian banners proudly insulted the sky, but that, the 
standards being taken by Duncan's forces and fixed in the 
ground, the colors idly flapped about, serving only to cool 
the conqueror instead of being proudly displayed by their 
former owners." 

Another says: "The Norwegian banners flout or insult the 
sky, while raised in the pride of expected victory, and fan, 
etc., is metaphorically used for chill them with apprehension." 1 

Which is the better interpretation ? 

1. 54. Bellona was an old Roman goddess of war, the sister 
and wife of Mars. " Bellona's bridegroom" is undoubtedly 
used to refer to Macbeth. 

Proof here means proof -armor. 

1. 55. That is, met him on an equality, with equal arms and 
equal valor. 

1. 59. Composition. Terms of peace. How does the deriva- 
tion make this meaning possible ? 

1. 61. Inch, an island. From Gaelic Innis or Ennis. 

"To inch and rock the sea-mews fly." 

— Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel, VI., 24. 

Colme's inch is a small island in the Frith of Edinburgh 
with an abbey upon it dedicated to St. Colomb. 

1. 62. dollars. Is not this an anachronism ? When were 
dollars first coined ? 

Scene III 

A careful study of this scene will disclose the weird sisters 
in two entirely distinct phases of character. Before Macbeth 
and Banquo enter, they appear as vulgar and cruel creatures, 



122 NOTES 

merely the commonplace witches of the everyday superstition 
of the period. But when the hero of the play enters, they 
throw aside their vulgarity, and assume a certain dignity as 
evil spirits who have the power, if not actually to control 
future events, at least to foresee and foretell them. The trans- 
formation is a notable one, and many different explanations 
have been given. One class of critics contends that the first 
part of the scene is an interpolation, and that Shakespeare is 
responsible only for the latter part. While there is undoubtedly 
evidence to support this view, another explanation seems more 
reasonable. Shakespeare is representing a man of noble im- 
pulses and exalted character struggling with temptation and 
finally yielding to it. The moral principles involved and illus- 
trated are exceedingly impressive. The horror and degrada- 
tion of sin are shown with a master hand. Now sin is not only 
evil and degrading, but it is utterly subversive of all nobility 
and refinement of character. The weird sisters exemplify to a 
considerable extent the evil influences which are exerted upon 
Macbeth. If they had appeared only as prophetic spirits, no 
matter how evil and perverted, the crime would not have been 
revealed in all its hideous aspects. Was it not, then, a stroke of 
genius to introduce this apparently discordant scene, by which 
the vulgarity and repulsiveness, which are essential elements as 
well as results of sin, are clearly brought out ? 

Observe that whenever the witches appear they are accom- 
panied by convulsions and portents of nature. Is this signifi- 
cant ? 

1. 6. Aroint thee. Aroint is a word of doubtful origin. It 
seems to have been a standard formula for exorcising witches 
and meant " Avaunt thee ! begone ! " 

rump-fed ronyon is a term of low reproach. Its most savory 



iVOTES 123 

meaning would be an ill-bred, unkempt woman who is com- 
pelled to feed upon offal and leavings. 

1. 7. Aleppo. In Hakluyt's Voyages there is an account of 
a ship Tiger which made a voyage to Aleppo in 1583. 

1. 8. Sieve. It was believed that witches could sail in egg- 
shells or sieves even on tempestuous seas. 

1. 9. tail. It was believed that, although a witch could 
assume the form of any animal she chose, the tail must always 
be wanting. 

1. 10. She threatens in the form of a rat to gnaw through 
the hull of the Tiger and cause her to spring a leak. 

1. 11. Witches were supposed to be able to sell winds. In 
Sumner's Last Will and Testament, 1600, occurs the following 
passage : 

" in Ireland and in Denmark both, 

Witches for gold will sell a man a wind, 
Which in the corner of a napkin wrapped, 
Shall blow him safe unto what coast he will." 

1. 15. ports. Some editors read points. Which is prefer- 
able ? 

1. 17. Shipman's card. The reference is to the sea-chart, 
or possibly to the card under the compass on which the differ- 
ent points of the compass are shown. 

1. 20. Some commentators say the eyebrow is meant here, 
and others the eyelid. Is there anything in the text which 
may decide the question '? 

1. 21. forbid, under a curse or bewitched. 



124 NOTES 

1. 32. The weird sisters. Max Miiller says : 

" Weird meant originally the Past. It was the name given 
to the first of the three Nomas, the German Parcae (Fates). 
. . . The Weird Sisters were intended either as destiny per- 
sonified, or as faticidoB, prophesying what is to befall man. 
Shakespeare retains the Saxon name." 

The expression is used by Holinshed, from whom Shake- 
speare probably borrowed it. Some commentators claim that 
weird is better read wayward, but the weight of authority 
seems to be against this change. 

1. 36. "They take hold of hands and dance around a ring 
nine times, three rounds for each witch. " Multiples of three and 
nine were specially affected by witches ancient and modern. 

1. 38. At last Macbeth appears and startles the audience by 
repeating substantially a remark that has already been heard 
from the lips of the witches. He may have referred to the fierce- 
ness of the battle and the glory of the victory, or to the day 
which, under the influence of the witches, had changed sud- 
denly from "fair" to "foul," and it is probable that his re- 
mark has no further significance. Yet the thought comes that 
the influence of the weird sisters has already been exerted upon 
him and that a subtle connection has been established between 
them. 

1. 48. The witches have no answer for Banquo, who first 
addresses them, but Macbeth wins an instantaneous recogni- 
tion. 

1. 50. This was an astounding prediction. Is there any 
present evidence that the idea was not a new one to Macbeth ? 
Does Banquo's exclamation, contain any hint of what is going 



NOTES 1'Jo 

on in Macbetlfs mind ? Observe if any subsequent passages 
throw light upon this question. 

1. 52. Here Ban quo turns and again addresses the witches. 

1. 55. Present grace refers to the dignity of Thane of Glamis 
which he has already attained ; the great prediction of noble 
having refers to the Thane of Cawdor ; while the prospect of 
royal power was the royal hope. 

1. 57. The first folio has wrapt instead of rapt. Which is 
the stronger word in this connection ? 

1. 61. Notice how differently the two men receive the pre- 
dictions of the witches. Macbeth is evidently deeply affected. 
A responsive chord has been touched in his heart, while Banquo 
seems moved by mere curiosity. 

1. 65. What explanation may be given of these apparently 
contradictory passages ? 

1. G7. French in his Shakespeare ana Genealogica, p. 291, 

has the following : 

"Banquo and Fleance, though named by Holinshed, followed 
by Shakespeare, are now considered by the best authors to be 
altogether fictitious personages. Chalmers says, ' History knows 
nothing of Banquo, the Thane of Lochaber, nor of Fleance, his 
son.' Sir Walter Scott observes that ' early authorities show no 
such personages as Banquo and his son Fleance. . . . Neither 
were Banquo and his son ancestors of the House of Stuart.' 
Yet modern Peerages and Genealogical Charts still retain the 
names of Banquo and Fleance in the pedigree of the Royal 
Houses of Scotland and England." 

1. 71. Macbeth was the son of Sinel, Thane of Glamis. 



126 NOTES 

I. 72. Notice the insincerity. Macbeth has met Cawdor in 
battle and knew him to be a traitor. See Scene II., 1. 5o. 

1. 76. The word owe comes from the Anglo-Saxon agan 
which means to have or possess. 

1. 81. corporal. Should not this be corporeal ? Study the 
meanings of the two words and decide. 

1. 84. insane root. It is difficult to determine what root is 
referred to here. Such plants as the deadly nightshade, hen- 
bane, hyoscyamus, and hemlock have been designated by dif- 
ferent commentators. 

Platarch, in his Life of Antony, says that "the Roman 
soldiers were compelled through want of provisions in the 
Parthian war, to taste of roots that were never eaten before ; 
among the which there was one that killed them, and made 
them out of their wits, for he that had once eaten of it, his 
memory was gone from him, and he knew no manner of thing, 
but only busied himself in digging and hurling stones from one 
place to another." 

1. 93. This passage is somewhat obscure. 

Halliwell interprets it as follows : " That is, — the king's won- 
der and commendation of your deeds are so nearly balanced, 
they contend whether the latter should be preeminently thine, 
or the wonder remain with him to the exclusion of any other 
thought." 

Clarendon says: "There is a conflict in the king's mind 
between his astonishment at the achievement and his admira- 
tion of the achiever ; he knows not how sufficiently to express 
his own wonder and to praise Macbeth, so that he is reduced 
to silence." 



NOTES 127 

1. 97. The sense is " you were not at all afraid of the death 
which you yourself were dealing to the enemy." 

1. 112. The verb line has an occasional meaning of to 
strengthen with new works. 

1. 120. home here means to the full extent. 

1. 120. Does this passage indicate that Banquo had fathomed 
Macbeth's growing purpose and desired to warn him against it ? 

1. 134. Evidently the suggestion that he murder the king. 

1. 136. Rowe says : " The hair may be uplifted but no horrid 
image can unfix it." 
1. 139. Fancied. 

1. 140. function refers to natural activity. He means to say 
that the ordinary activities of his mind are overshadowed by his 
imagination and that his fancies have taken the place of the 
facts by which he is surrounded. For the time he lives in an 
unreal world which fancy, incited by his ambition, has con- 
jured up. 

1. 151. This is a second evidence of insincerity, which shows 
that the evil leaven is working. 

Scene IV 

Notice that hitherto the king has appeared in an unfavorable 
light in comparison with Macbeth, but now the true nobility 
and gentleness of his nature are revealed, while Macbeth's 
cruel ambition and treachery continue to debase his character. 
Observe how the contrast heightens as the play moves on. 

1. 9. Well qualified by study. Possibly an allusion is in- 
tended to the deaths of Socrates and Seneca. 



128 NOTES 

1. 11. Can this passive use of the adjective careless be justi- 
fied ? It is to he understood here in the sense of not cared for. 

1. 15. Duncan's reflections on Cawdor are interrupted hy 
the entrance of a man whose face, like that of the traitorous 
earl, masked the deep designs of his heart. All that Duncan 
said about Cawdor he could say with equal truth about Mac- 
beth. 

1. 18. proportion, that is, the due proportion between Mac- 
beth's deserts and Duncan's thanks and payment. 

1. 29. mine. One editor reads more instead of mine. An- 
other surmises that Shakespeare wrote mean, in the sense of 
equal or just. Study the text carefully and determine which 
of these readings is preferable. 

1. 21. More is thy due than more than all I can say or do 
will pay. 

1. 22. Observe the frank sincerity and hearty generosity of 
Duncan's greeting, and then the hypocrisy and labored rhetoric 
of Macbeth's response. What insight do you thus get into the 
character of each ? 

1. 22. The loyal service which I owe repays itself in its per- 
formance. Why is the verb pays in the singular '? 

1. 26. Safe toward. This expression has been variously 
interpreted. Seymour says : "with sure tendency." Singer 
says: " Safe may mean merely respectful, loyal. 1 ' Knight 
says : " Surely it is easier to receive the words in their plain 
acceptation — our duties are called upon to do everything which 
they can do safely, as regards the honor and love we bear you." 
Elwin says: "The meaning is, who do what they should, by 
doing everything that can be done, which secures to you the 



NOTES 129 

love and honor that is your due." Clarendon says : " Safe is 
used provincially for sure, certain.'" 

Safe is sometimes used in the sense of conferring safety, e.g. 
a safe guide. May the passage be interpreted as follows : " By 
doing everything which shall render your love and honor safe 
and secure " ? 

1. 29. growing was formerly used of accruing wealth and 
power. 

1. 29. Mark the difference in his greetings of Macbeth and 
Banquo. What does this indicate in regard to his feelings 
towards them '? Also observe that he gives Banquo equal honor 
with Macbeth. 

1. 35. His joys are so abundant that they find expression in 
tears. 

1. 38. Is there any significance in the unusual time and 
manner of this announcement ? Is it possible that the king 
had begun to suspect Macbeth's ambition and desired to show 
him its futility ? At any rate the announcement of the succes- 
sion must bring matters to a crisis in the mind of Macbeth. He 
must now make his choice between loyalty and treason. 

1. 39. Prince of Cumberland. " The crown of Scotland was 
originally not hereditary. When a successor was declared in 
the lifetime of a king (as was often the case), the title of Prince 
of Cumberland was immediately bestowed on him as the mark 
of his designation. Cumberland was at that time held by Scot- 
land of England as a fief." — Steevens. 

1. 43. to you ; to Macbeth. 

1. 44. The rest. In the first folio rest is printed with a 
capital, which leaves no doubt of its meaning. 

K 



130 NOTES 

1. 50. For in my way it lies. How does this step of the 
king lie in his way ? What two lines of action, only, lie open 
to him now ? 

Stars, hide your fires. As this scene is evidently not laid in 
the night, why does he utter this apostrophe to the stars ? 

1. 54. True. While Macbeth is uttering the lines which 
precede, Duncan and Banquo are evidently conferring apart in 
regard to Macbeth and Duncan's speech is in response to some 
commendation bestowed upon him by Banquo. 

1. 58. It is a peerless kinsman. One editor reads He in 
place of It. Duncan is evidently speaking of Macbeth with 
warm affection. With this in mind, which form of expression 
would best suit his purpose ? 

Scene V 

This scene begins to reveal the ascendency which Lady Mac- 
beth wields over her husband. She has made up her mind that 
he shall be king, and the opportunity is at hand. Her powerful 
character-sketch of her husband should be carefully studied, for 
it not only reveals his nature but sheds light upon her own. 

1.22. The illness referred to is moral. Righteousness is only 
a state of moral health, while sin is a disease. 

1. 29. golden round of course refers to the crown. 

1. 30. metaphysical in Shakespeare's time seems to have 
had no other meaning than supernatural. 

1. 31. seem To have thee crowned withal. Would it be 
easier to interpret this passage if aim were substituted for seem ? 
One editor changes the order so as to make it read "seem To 
have crowned thee withal." Is this a better rendering ? 



NOTES 131 

1. 39. The raven himself is hoarse, etc. Some commenta- 
tors make this a direct reference to the messenger who is so 
spent with his haste that he can hardly breathe to deliver his 
message. Is it not better to give it the simple meaning which 
the text seems to imply ? 

1. 40. This magnificent invocation to the spirits of evil is 
one of the finest things of the kind in all literature. It should 
be carefully studied. 

1. 41. mortal in sense of deadly* 

1. 46. In what sense may compunctious be said to keep 
peace between her purpose and its effect or fulfilment ? 

1. 50. Sightless seems to mean something more than invisi- 
ble ; perhaps it may imply, too horrible to be looked upon. 

1. 55. Compare this soliloquy with Macbeth's in the pre- 
ceding scene. 

I. 57. hereafter. Mrs. Jameson says: "This is surely the 
very rapture of ambition ! and those who have heard Mrs. Sid- 
dons pronounce the word hereafter, cannot forget the look, the 
tone, which seemed to give her auditors a glimpse of that awful 
future, which she, in her prophetic fury, beholds upon the 
instant. 

1. 58. ignorant. Johnson says ignorant is used in the sense 
of unknowing. Delius thinks it should be taken to mean 
obscure. 

1. 62. Lady Macbeth's ambition for her husband has taken 
entire possession of her. It overshadows every consideration of 
friendship, hospitality, and humanity. Entirely regardless of 
consequences, she has yielded herself wholly to this unholy 
purpose. 



132 NOTES 

1. 72. Her present resolution and daring cannot be under- 
stood until it is compared with the weakness and remorse with 
which she is afterwards visited. The present moment is not 
one of calm purpose but of madness. The spirits which she has 
invoked have indeed taken possession of her. When the deed 
is done and conscience seeks to exorcise them it is too late. 

1. 74. All she asks is that he shall keep up appearances. 
She is ready to do the rest. To such a height of resolution does 
her present madness carry her. 

Scene VI 

In this scene the king and his demon-inspired hostess are 
brought together. The opening passage, dwelling upon the 
peace and quietness of the surroundings, serves to heighten the 
horror of the deed which is about to be performed in their 
midst. It sometimes happens that where nature smiles the 
sweetest there human passions are the bitterest. 

The contrast between Duncan and Lady Macbeth as illus- 
trated in this scene should be carefully studied. He overflows 
with genuine good-will, while her heart is full of hatred towards 
him, and already she has determined to murder him. Her 
overwrought feelings and her desire to avoid suspicion betray 
themselves to us in her strained and empty greetings. 

Is it not a significant fact that Macbeth does not appear to 
welcome his guest ? 

1. 2. nimbly. The expression brisk air is frequently used. 

1. 3. gentle senses is used in the sense of placid feelings. 

1. 4. temple-haunting. Is this a chance epithet, or does it 
show an exact knowledge of natural history on the part of 
Shakespeare ? 



NOTES 1,33 

1. 5. Pope reads masonry instead of mansionry. 

1. 6. jutty. Several editors would omit the comma, and 
make jutty an adjective to agree with frieze. Will the nature 
of the frieze admit of this construction ? It is probably better 
to read jetty, from which the modern word is obtained. It is 
applied to the part of the house which projects under the eaves. 

1. 13. Yield, sometimes used by Shakespeare and contem- 
poraries in the sense "to give a reward to." Cf. 

" Send me to-night two hours, I ask no more, 
And the gods yield you for't." 

— Antony and Cleopatra, IV., 2. 

1. 1 4. This passage may be read as follows : 

" The love that our friends bear for us sometimes causes us 
trouble, for which still we are thankful as an evidence of that 
love. Thus I teach you how you shall bid God reward us for 
your pains and thank us for your troubles, for are they not 
evidence of our love ? " 

1. 19. That is, persons whose lives are devoted to prayer for 
you. 

1. 27. It was the old feudal idea that all the land belonged 
to the king, and that all the landowners, with their families and 
servants, were his dependants. Lady Macbeth, perhaps un- 
consciously, uses an old feudal formula to show how fully she 
holds herself and all that she has at the king's service. 

1. 31. Here Duncan gives his hand to Lady Macbeth and 
leads her into the castle. 

Scene VII 

This scene should be very carefully studied, not only for its 
dramatic interest, but also for the further light it sheds upon 



134 XOTES 

the two leading characters of the play. It is an evidence of 
Shakespeare's genius that, notwithstanding the horror which 
his purpose inspires, the sympathies of the audience are still 
with Macbeth. Should he now determine to give up his pur- 
pose the audience would turn from him in disappointment and 
unhesitatingly dub him a coward. It would be a profitable 
task to carefully study this whole act to ascertain how the 
author brings such an apparently impossible result to pass. 
Sewer : an officer who served up a feast. 

" Their task the busy sewers ply 
And all is mirth and revelry." 
— Scott, Lay of the Last Minstrel, VI., 6. 

1.1. IE the doing of the murder were all that was necessary 
to carry out his purpose, then it were well it were done quickly. 
But there are consequences. 

The following interesting discussion of these two lines ap- 
peared in the Boston Courier, April 25, 1857, and are quoted 
in Furness' Variorum Macbeth, p. 441 : 

" A few words on the first two lines of it. Strange as it may 
seem, this masterly production of the foremost man in the 
dramatic literature of the world used to be censured for 'per- 
plexity of thought and expression.' On the contrary, one of 
the wonders of the piece is the firmness with which a simple 
train of reflection is seized and adhered to. The thought is 
nature itself, and the expression eminently characteristic of 
Shakespeare. The opening passage has been sadly abused, 
first, by faulty readers and actors, who either mouth it into 
indistinctness or else so roll it over the smooth road of stage 
prosody that it is impossible to tell what meaning is indicated. 
The second error is that which may be called the child's way of 
reading, who understands the matter thus : 



KOTES 135 

' If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well 
It were done quickly.' 

"That is, if I am really to do it I had better set about it 
directly. . . . The emphasis that now probably obtains among 
intelligent persons is : 

' If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well 
It were done quickly.' 

"This method has the merit of not misunderstanding the 
original, and of presenting to the mind at the first start a grand 
conception. 

"The 'if means if, when the murder is committed, there 
were the end of it. So Schiller, in his admirable translation 
of the play, clearly discerns it : . . . We cannot but perceive, 
however, that the German translator, though he apprehends the 
idea aright, foregoes the advantage of using precisely the same 
word, repeated immediately in an altered sense, which gives 
such a power to the English text. This is one of Shakespeare's 
bold peculiarities, and a great favorite with him, as the careful 
reader of his works will see. Two instances, at least, occur in 
this very tragedy : 

'Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff,' 
and 

' Those he commands move only in command.' . . . 
" Macbeth professes to defy religion, and to care nothing for 
the threatened retributions of another world ; but he dreads 
the avenging of his crimes ' here ' : 

'But here, upon this bank and shoal of time.' 

This description, by the way, of the guilty Thane, thinking 
only of the earth, with its shattering fortunes, and of the pres- 
ent life, with its petty space ' and its brief cr.ndle.' its creeping 



136 NOTES 

to-morrows and its yesterdays, that do nothing but light fools 
to their death, is wondrously sustained in every part of the 
play, till at last he cries out in despair : 

' I 'gin to grow a-weary of the sun, 
And wish the estate of the world 
were now undone.' " 

1. 4. his surcease. His must refer either to Duncan or to 
his assassination, in which case it is used in place of its. 
Which is the better rendering ? 

Surcease, according to Clarendon, was a legal term meaning 
the arrest or stoppage of a suit, or superseding a jurisdiction. 
Staunton gives the meaning of this passage as follows : "If the 
assassination were an absolutely final act, and could shut up 
all consecution, — 'be the be-all and end-all' even of this life 
only, — we would run the hazard of the future state." 

1. 7. Jump. In the sense of risk. 

Cf. Coriolanns, III. : 

" You that prefer a noble life before a long, and wish 
To jump a body with a dangerous physic 
That's sure of death without it." 

1. 8. Here. This evidently refers to this life, where judg- 
ment or punishment awaits the offender. 

1. 17. Faculties. In the sense of prerogatives or powers. 

I. 18. Clear. Blameless. 

II. 19-25. Macbeth portrays here, in striking figures and 
with deepest pathos, the consequences of Duncan's murder. 

1. 25. Delius says: "This image of a shower of tears, in 



NOTES 137 

which the storm of passion expends itself, is very common in 
Shakespeare." 

1. 26. This passage has been variously interpreted. Prob- 
ably the simplest and best explanation is given by Knight, who 
says: 

" Macbeth compares his intent to a courser. I have no spur 
to urge him on. Unprepared I am about to vault into my seat, 
but I overleap myself and fall. It appears to us that the 
sentence is broken by the entrance of the messenger ; that 
it is not complete in itself, and would not have been completed 
with 'side.' " 

1. 28. Macbeth's purpose wavers. Fear of consequences first, 
and then his sense of hospitality and of Duncan's gentleness and 
merit, contend mightily with his ambition. Shakespeare makes 
it very plain that, left to himself, he would never have done 
the deed. 

I. 34. Is this the proper use of " would " ? 

Clarendon says: "The modern usage of 'shall' and 'will,' 
'should' and 'would,' now perfectly logical and consistent, has 
been gradually refined and perfected. In the time of Shake- 
speare and Bacon these words were employed arbitrarily and 
irregularly. ..." 

II. 35-36. Notice the mixed metaphor. In the same line hope 
is made both a garment and a person. 

1. 37. Green and pale. Referring to the appearance Hope 
presents upon awaking from her drunkenness. 

1. 38. Here seems to be another incongruity. Hope is 
represented as looking backward instead of forward. May 
not these three lines be an index of Lady Macbeth's state of 
mind ? She sees her husband faltering, where her own purpose 



138 XOTES 

has become both fixed and supreme. She recognizes his fear, 
and also his compunctions of conscience, and for both she has 
nothing but scorn and contempt, which well up in the most 
vehement language at her command. Refinements of thought 
and expression are thrown to the winds, and she breaks forth 
in strong, breathless sentences, which pierce the armor of her 
husband's conceit, sweep away his sophistries, and bend him to 
her will. In her impassioned utterance this passage would need 
no interpretation or apology. 

1. 39. " From this time I account thy love for me as no more 
genuine than the hope thou hast cherished to become king." — 
Delius. 

1. 44. Notice that Lady Macbeth attacks him at his most 
vulnerable point. He is ambitious, but his ambition may wait 
upon his prudence. She strikes straight home when she charges 
him not only with inconsistency, but even with cowardice. This 
implication at once scatters his mercy to the winds. Further- 
more, she assures him that if he falters now she will value his 
love as little as she does his moral courage. 

I. 45. Cat. This adage is given in Adagia Scotica in the 
following form : kt Ye breed of the cat : ye would fain have fish, 
but ye have no w r ill to wet your feet." 

II. 46-47. This exalted sentiment, if actually uttered by 
Macbeth, marks the last rally of his better self before the 
withering words of his wife. While this reading is no doubt 
authentic, it is interesting to note that the folios give the last 
line " Who dares no more is none." 

1. 48. Beast. Lady Macbeth scornfully asks : "If you say 
this device could not be conceived by a man, what beast was it 
that made you break the enterprise to me ? " Collier reads 



NOTES 139 

boast instead of beast. Which reading best expresses her 
passion ? 

1. 52. Adhere. In the sense of " to be favorable.' 1 
1. 52. The fact now becomes plain that the murder of the 
king had been previously discussed by them. 

1. 58. In this passage Lady Macbeth works herself up into a 
frenzy, until her last words are shrieked out in entire abandon- 
ment of all womanly feeling. Not the mother, but the demons 
whom she has invoked, speak here. 

1. 59. We fail ! This line has been variously punctuated, — 
with an interrogation point, an exclamation point, and a period. 
What changes in the sense would be indicated by these changes 
in punctuation ? 

1. 04. Convince. To overcome. 

1. 67. A contraction of alembic, a vessel for distillations. 

1. 71. Spongy. Because they absorbed so much liquor. 

1. 72. Quell. Murder, derived from the same Saxon word 
as kill. 

1. 82. Observe how shrewdly she has found his most vulner- 
able points, and how quickly she overcomes his scruples. But 
when she has fixed his resolution, and the crime is determined 
upon, she resigns the leadership to him and resumes her 
womanly characteristics, which, for the moment, the exigencies 
of the situation have compelled her to lay aside. 

Act II, Scene I 

The festivities of the evening are over and the guests have 
retired to rest. One only, Banquo, seems to have suspected 



140 NOTES 

Macbeth' s designs. The straightforward and natural course, in 
such an event, would have been to inform the king and to stand 
guard over his person. Yet Banquo does not do this, and we 
note the fact with surprise. It is possible, of course, that his 
suspicions are too vague and ill-defined to excite him to action. 
But on the other hand we ask ourselves if ambition has not been 
awakened in his bosom, as well as in Macbeth' s, by the predic- 
tions of the weird sisters, by whom, it is true, Macbeth had 
been awarded the more immediate honors, but he the more 
lasting. To an extent his fate is linked with Macbeth's. Is it 
possible that this trusted friend of the king, this soul of honor, 
has also been corrupted by the fell design and has determined 
to let matters take their course without interference on his part ? 
The following scene should be studied carefully with this ques- 
tion in mind. 

It is difficult to locate the scene of this encounter between 
Banquo and Macbeth. It must be near the bedchamber and 
yet under the open sky. It is probable that the author had in 
mind an open court with galleries around the sides, reached by 
stairways, from which the chambers opened. 

1. 2. Clock. When were clocks first invented ? 

1. 4. Why does he deliver up his sword ? Does he fear he 
may, else, have occasion to draw it in a cause in which he would 
prefer to remain neutral ? 

1. 5. Take thee that too. The reference is probably to a 
dagger. 

1. 7. Why not ? 

1. 9. As he afterwards says he has been dreaming of the 
weird sisters, and his dreams have shocked him, what is the 
inference ? Whatever is passing in Banquo's mind his attitude 



NOTES 141 

is contrasted strongly with that of Macbeth. He prays to be 
delivered from "cursed thoughts," while Macbeth cherishes 
them and yields. Steevens says: "The one is unwilling to 
sleep lest the same phantoms should assail him again, while the 
other is depriving himself of rest through impatience to commit 
murder." 

1. 14. Offices probably should be officers, meaning servants. 

1. 15. Does this unusual time of conferring the king's gift 
indicate that Banquo suspects Macbeth's purpose and is seeking 
to win him from it by calling attention to the king's generosity 
and his confidence in his host ? 

I. 16. He has shut himself up in his room, gone to his repose, 
in measureless content. May this be interpreted in any other 
way ? 

II. 17-19. The meaning is: "Not expecting the king we 
were unprepared to receive him, hence our entertainment was 
defective, and not according to our will, which would have freely 
placed all at his service." The antecedent of which is will. 

1. 21. Is he not trying to sound Macbeth's purpose ? 

1. 22. " When we can beg an hour of your time to be placed 
at our service." Notice that Macbeth has already adopted the 
royal we. 

1. 25. Macbeth purposely expresses himself obscurely. Yet 
Banquo can hardly fail to see that he refers to the royal power, 
which was the subject of the third prophecy of the Weird Sisters. 

cleave. Distinguish between this word and cleave meaning 
to split. 

1. 26. when 'tis. When that happens which is promised. 



142 NOTES 

1. 29. His professions are certainly all that could be desired 
of a loyal subject, but notice that he leaves the king to his fate. 

1. 31. He must fortify his purpose and nerve his arm by 
strong drink, for alcohol strengthens passion and weakens con- 
science. 

1. 33. This apostrophe to the drawn dagger is one of the 
most dramatic episodes of the entire play. Evidence has already 
been given that the powers of darkness have interested them- 
selves in Macbeth's career. What then more naturally falls 
into the spirit of the play, than that their ghostly hands should 
hold a shadowy dagger before his eyes to show him that he 
must not now withdraw, and to lead the way to his victim ? 

Picture the scene. The heavens are clouded over and impene- 
trable darkness shrouds the castle in unearthly gloom. The 
silence is impressive, for it is the calm that precedes the fury 
of the storm. Macbeth, intent upon his deed of horror, is grop- 
ing his way across the deserted courtyard by the feeble light of 
a lantern, when suddenly there shines before his eyes, with 
phosphorescent glow, a drawn dagger, which avoids his hands 
as he reaches out to clutch it and recedes, dripping with gore, 
towards the chamber where the gentle king is sleeping. It is 
only when the imagination of the reader draws such a picture 
that the horror of the scene can be appreciated. 

1. 44. Either his eyes are deceived by his frenzied imagina- 
tion, or else they actually reveal the existence of that which his 
other senses cannot discover. 

1. 46. dudgeon. The wood of the box-tree root, formerly 
used for dagger handles, hence the handle of a dagger. 

gouts, from French goutte, and Latin gutta, a drop ; a term 
used in falconry meaning a spot on a hawk, hence a drop, a clot. 



NOTES 143 

1. 51. curtained sleep. Is curtained sleeper preferable ? It 
is so read by many editors. 

1. 52. pale Hecate. A goddess of undefined attributes, hav- 
ing power over heaven, earth, and the underworld. She was 
associated with moon-worship, ghosts, shades of the dead, 
sorcery, and the nether world. 

1. 54. watch in the sense of signal. 

1. 55. strides in its usual acceptation does not convey the 
idea of silent, stealthy motion, yet the word is not wholly in- 
compatible with the sense of the passage as many editors insist. 
The eagerness of the ravisher or murderer may lead him to take 
long and hasty, though noiseless, steps toward his victim. In 
his poem on Lucrece Shakespeare represents Tarquin as stalk- 
ing into the chamber. In the Faerie Queene Spenser uses the 
word stride in the sense in which it is used here : 

" With easy steps so soft as foot could stride." 

— IV., 8. 

1. 59. present horror. Horror, here, probably refers to the 
silence, which may be most horrible to the evil-doer. The 
prating of the stones would break the dreadful silence of the 
present, which yet was suited to his fell purpose. 

1. 61. Words is the subject of gives. Gives is either an 
early form of the plural, or else it is altered to suit the rhyme. 

Scene II 

1. 2. Does this sentence indicate that she has found it neces- 
sary to strengthen her courage with stimulants, or simply that 
she is emboldened by their helplessness ? 

1. 3. The hooting of the owl was generally considered omi- 



144 NOTES 

nous. To whom does he here "shriek the sternest good 
night"? 

In Webster's Duchess of 3IaJfi, IV., 2, Bosola tells the 
duchess : 

" I am the common bellman 
That usually is sent to condemned persons 
The night before they suffer." 

1. 9. His nervous tension is so great that he shrieks even at a 
fancied noise. 

1. 11. Hark ! Does this exclamation mark the fatal blow ? 

1. 14. This sentence is significant in that it shows that the 
evil spirits which she had invoked had not quite " unsexed her, 
and filled her from the crown to the toe topful of the direst 
cruelty." 

1. 15. Bodenstedt says: "This whispering, so laconic and 
yet so heart-piercing, between the two who dare not meet each 
other's eyes, belongs to the most powerful that the poetry of 
all ages and all times has created." 

1. 18. Hark ! This word indicates the intense nervous strain 
under which each is laboring. 

1. 21. Addressed is here used in the sense of prepared or 
composed. 

1. 28. What does this show in regard to his state of mind ? 

1. 31. This line shows the inconquerable egotism of Mac- 
beth. Surely murder and prayer do not consort together, yet 
he wonders why he could not pray when his hands were wet 
with the blood of the murdered king. 

1. 34. make us mad. Now thai, the deed is done its awful 
reality first dawns upon the mind of Lady Macbeth. 



NOTES 145 

1. 35. The remarkable passage which follows is one of the 
most pathetic in the whole range of literature. Here is no 
vision or hallucination, but rather the disordered mind speak- 
ing from the depths of despair and remorse. 

1. 36. Soft floss or silk. Cf . Drayton, The Muses' 1 Elysium : 

" As soft as sleave or sarcinet ever was 
"Whereon my Cloris her sweet self reposes." 

1. 40. In unfeigned astonishment Lady Macbeth cries, 
" What do you mean ? " Macbeth takes no notice of her ques- 
tion, but continues in the same pathetic strain. 

1. 56. To gild with blood was not an uncommon expression 
in the sixteenth century. 

1. 57. guilt. This pun, so ill-timed, only serves to heighten 
the horror of the occasion. Does her conduct in this trying 
scene indicate that she is more hardened to crime than her 
husband, or simply that her imagination is less active than 
his? 

1. 63. One in the sense of all. 

1. 69. left you unattended, that is, hath forsaken you. 

Scene III 

This episode has been criticised as being out of place, and 
an interruption of the proper action of the play. A close 
study, however, would seem to lead to a different view. The 
audience has been wrought up to a fearful tension by the hor- 
rors which have been depicted, and this interlude serves as a 
relief while at the same time it is entirely within the motive of 
the play. Macbeth has sold himself, body and soul, to the 



146 XOTES 

powers of evil, and the audience recognizing this at once see 
the propriety of introducing his drunken porter as the guardian 
of the gates of hell. 

1. 2. porter of hell-gate. Imagine the drunken porter stum- 
bling in the darkness towards the door, and while he fumbles 
with the fastenings he mutters and grumbles in the words of 
the text. He little thinks that there are horrors within that 
come near to making him in very truth a porter to hell-gate. 

old is used here as an intensive or argumentative. See Merry 
Wives of Windsor, I., 4, and Merchant of Venice, IV., 2. 

1. 5. farmer. There is an old story that a farmer living in 
Peacham had hoarded hay when it was five pounds ten shil- 
lings per load, and when it unexpectedly fell to forty and thirty 
shillings he hung himself through disappointment and vexation, 
but was cut down by his son before he was quite dead. 

1. 6. come in time. As the porter subsequently, in similar 
connections, calls out, "Come in, equivocator," "come in, 
tailor," this passage should probably mean, come in, farmer. 
Can the word time be taken as a whimsical allusion to the 
farmer ? 

napkins, frequently used at that time for handkerchiefs. 

1. II. English tailor. The joke here may have been found 
in the fact that French hose at that time were very short and 
small, hence a tailor must be very expert who could steal any- 
thing from them. French fashions varied so much, however, 
that this is at best but a doubtful explanation. 

1. 21. primrose way. The same expression is used by 
Ophelia in Hamlet, I., iii., 50. In AlVs Well that Ends Well, 
IV., v., 56, the clown says: " . . . , and they'll be for the 
flowery way that leads to the broad gate and the great fire." 



KOTES 147 

1. 46. Is thy master stirring. It is very difficult to fix the 
time of Duncan's murder. From the conversation between 
Banquo and Fleance we may suppose that the time of the meet- 
ing with Macbeth was not long after twelve o'clock. In the 
sleep-walking scene, in Act V., Lady Macbeth says: "One, 
— two — 'tis time to do't." From this it would seem that the 
murder occurred shortly after two. On the other hand Macbeth 
had hardly time to put on his clothes after his excited and almost 
incoherent conference with his wife before Macduff and Lennox 
arrived, which could not have been far from six o'clock. The 
internal evidence as to the time is so conflicting as to leave us 
wholly in the dark as to Shakespeare's intention. 

1. 50. not yet. At this point Macbeth's career of dissimula- 
tion begins. Notice that at first he strives to maintain the 
semblance of truthfulness, but soon casts aside this compunction 
and lies openly and deliberately. In the various phases of his 
downfall that is not the least interesting which exhibits him 
gradually ceasing to be frank and truthful until his conscience 
is stifled, and he dissimulates and lies with reckless abandon. 
Lying is the most insidious of all vices. When it is once 
yielded to in the slightest degree it gathers strength and domin- 
ion, until it undermines the moral nature of its victim, and 
strikes the death-blow to his character. 

1. 55. physics is used in the sense of heals. Shakespeare 
uses it again in the same sense in Cymbeline, III., ii., 34 ; also 
in The Winter" 1 s Tale, L, i., 43. 

1. 56. Macbeth is not a good dissembler, as Lady Macbeth 
has already told us. From this time on he blunders constantly 
in his efforts to conceal his crime. Instead of hesitating before 
the door and leaving some one else to knock, was it not his best 
policy to boldly summon the king ? 



148 NOTES 

1. 57. limited, in the sense of appointed. Macduff was evi- 
dently serving as a "Lord of the Bedchamber." 

1. 58. Notice that his moral nature has not yet become suf- 
ficiently degraded to permit him to tell a falsehood without a 
qualm. The student should not fail to trace the steps in his 
moral ruin. 

1. 62. prophesying may be used in the sense of solemnly 
proclaiming. Is there anything in the context which would 
make its usual meaning, of foretelling, out of place here ? 

1. 04. obscure. Probably hidden, enveloped in darkness. 
Possibly the bird which loves the darkness. 

1. GO. feverous is a word of rare occurrence. It evidently 
refers here to the ague. Shakespeare uses it once more in 
Coriolanus, I., i., 01. 

1. 09. The use of two negatives to strengthen the negation is 
common in Shakespeare. 

1. 73. The confused metaphor but emphasizes the horror 
under which Macduff is laboring. The temple can hardly be 
spoken of as the "Lord's anointed,' 1 '' an expression which could 
apply to Duncan alone, unless used in the Pauline sense, "Ye 
are temples of the living God." 

1. 77. Gorgon. Of course tlite reference is to Medusa. 

1. 83. great doom's image. The precursor of the judgment 
day and its similitude. 

1. 93. This exclamation is significant. If Lady Macbeth had 
been innocent she would have thought only of the murder, and 
would have been overcome with surprise and horror. Now, 
however, she has anticipated this situation, and has framed her 
words carefully in the hope that she might avert suspicion. Her 



NOTES 149 

husband's state of mind is wholly different. He seems to have 
repented of his deed, and is appalled by the situation. Study 
carefully the conduct of each in this crisis. 

1.112. Macbeth has here made another serious blunder. Up 
to this time, in the general confusion, suspicion has not been 
directed against him. The situation is made more grave by his 
blundering attempts to excuse himself. Lady Macbeth at once 
sees his mistake, and either really faints, because she sees how 
her husband is centring suspicion on himself, or else she 
feigns to do so in order to create a diversion. 

1. 117. outrun. Both forms of the past were in use in 
Shakespeare's time. While outran would be the better form 
to-day, the other is sometimes used. 

1. 117. pauser. The ending er is sometimes appended to a 
noun to signify the agent, especially by Shakespeare, who uses 
such words as Roman sworder, A moraler, Justicers, Homagers, 
Truster, Causer, etc. 

1. 118. silver skin, etc. This speech 'of Macbeth's is full of 
forced and unnatural metaphors. It is not the kind of language 
which an innocent man would have used at this time, but is 
rather the artificial language of dissimulation, and not the 
natural expression of an unaffected grief and horror. 

His silver skin laced with his golden blood seems far fetched 
and affected, but may have been suggested by the custom then 
prevalent of wearing rich garments of cloth of silver laced with 
gold. 

1. 122. unmannerly breeched. This expression is very hard 
to understand ; and, were the circumstances under which the 
words were uttered less strained, we might suppose that an 
error had been made in copying. Indeed. Johnson suggests the 



150 NOTES 

reading, unmanly drenched with (/ore, and other editors have 
made similar emendations. Yet it is probably better to retain 
the original words, for Macbeth's emotion is so great and his 
fear of detection so agonizing that it is not strange that he 
becomes incoherent and uses distorted images. The expression 
probably means that the daggers were covered with blood as 
with breeches, which were unmannerly because so defiled. 

1.124. to make's. Shakespeare frequently uses this abbre- 
viation of his. 

1. 125. This episode has occasioned much discussion, and is 
well worth careful consideration on the part of the student. 
Did Lady Macbeth really faint, or did she only feign to do so ? 

With her woman's acuteness, she realized that her husband 
was on the verge of disclosing his secret in his frantic efforts to 
divert suspicion which had not yet been directed towards him. 
Something must be done at once to divert attention from him, 
and allow him a chance to recover his self-possession ; and her 
quick wit enabled her to seize upon the only expedient which 
would accomplish this object. 

On the other hand, it is urged that her powers had been 
strained to the uttermost, and in this appalling crisis they gave 
way, and for a time her restless mind was mercifully veiled in 
unconsciousness. 

Whately says : "On Lady Macbeth's seeming to faint, while 
Banquo and Macduff are solicitous about her, Macbeth, by 
his unconcern, betrays a consciousness that the fainting was 
feigned." 

Horn says : " Lady Macbeth's amiable powers gave way, and 
the swoon is real. It moreover gives us an intimation of her 
subsequent fate." 

Bodenstedt says : "Most editors suppose this fainting-fit to 



XOTES 151 

be a pretence, but I am convinced that Shakespeare meant it to 
be real. Various causes have cooperated to beget in Lady 
Macbeth a revulsion of feeling, which, from henceforth, con- 
stantly increasing, drives her at last to self-destruction. . . . 
We perceive here the intimation of that internal and natural 
reaction of her overtaxed powers. Womanhood reasserts its 
rights. ' ' 

1. 127. hid in an auger-hole. The meaning is that "from 
the most hidden and unexpected place our fate may rush upon 
us." 

1. 129. Our tears. The emphasis is upon our, thus con- 
trasting their real grief with the feigned sorrow of their host, 
whom they undoubtedly suspect of the crime. 

1. 130. Great sorrow, in its first strength, is overwhelming, 
motionless, and tearless. 

1. 132. The reference is to the disordered condition of their 
clothing, as most of them had rushed to the spot before their 
toilets were completed. 

1. 138. Banquo declares himself an unfaltering enemy of 
treason, no matter what pretence may be divulged in the future 
to justify this act. 

1. 139. manly readiness probably means knightly armor. 

1. 146. There's daggers, etc. Ponalbain suspects all men, 
but most of all his father's nearest of kin, Macbeth. 

1. 147. The design to fix the blame upon some innocent 
person had not yet been carried into effect, or it may mean 
that the purpose of the murderer is not yet accomplished, and 
cannot be as long as they, the sons of Duncan, are left alive. 



152 NOTES 



Scene IV 



This scene is introduced to give background and perspective, 
and is not essential to the action of the play. The crime has 
been committed, and now with a few touches the author makes 
known to us the portents which accompanied it, and what the 
world thought of it. The untimely flight of the king's sons 
has made it possible to cast the suspicion upon them, an ex- 
planation which, as a matter of policy, every one accepts, and 
apparently no one believes. Macbeth has plucked the fruits 
of the crime, and is already on his way to the coronation 
stone. Truly events are moving rapidly. 

1. 3. sore. From A.-S. sar, grievous or painful. The word 
in this sense is in common use in Scotland, as " a sair blow." 

1. 4. trifled. This is an example of a somewhat common 
usage among Elizabethan writers, viz., the conversion of a 
noun or adjective into a verb, generally with an active signifi- 
cation. 

1. 4. knowings. A rare use of the participle as a noun. It 
is not used by Shakespeare anywhere else in the plural. 

1. 7. travelling lamp. The first and second folios have 
travailing lamp. Is emphasis to be laid upon the struggle of 
the sun to overcome the darkness, or did the author merely use 
the participle in connection with lamp to show that the sun 
was meant ? 

1. 10. In Holinshed's account of the murder of King Duff 
by Donnold, (a.d. 972), from which Shakespeare evidently de- 
rived some of the material for this play, occurs the following 
passage : 

" For the space of six moneths togither, after this heinous 



NOTES 153 

murther thus committed, there appeered no sunne by day, nor 
moone by night in anie part of the realme, but still was the 
side covered with continuall clouds, and sometimes suche out- 
ragious windes arose, with lightenings and tempests, that the 
people were in great feare of present destruction." 

1. 12. towering was a term used in falconry. Milton says : 
" The bird of Jove stoopt from his aerie tour (airy tower)." 

1. 13. mousing owl. Note the contrast with towering falcon* 

1. 15. minions used in its original sense of favorites. 

" Immortal minions in their Maker's sight." 

— Stirling, Domesday. 

1. 23. Study this passage carefully and see if there is any 
suggestion that Macduff does not here express his honest 
opinion. 

1. 28. ravin up : devour greedily. 

1. 31. Scone. "The ancient royal city of Scone, supposed 
to have been the capital of the Pictish kingdom, lay two miles 
northward from the present town of Perth. It was the resi- 
dence of the Scottish monarchs, . . . and there was a long 
series of kings crowned on the celebrated stone enclosed in a 
chair now used as the seat of our sovereigns at coronations in 
Westminster Abbey. This stone was removed to Scone from 
Dunstaffnage, the yet earlier residence of the Scottish kings, 
by Kenneth II., soon after the founding of the Abbey of Scone 
by the Culdees in 838, and was transferred by Edward I. to 
Westminster Abbey in 1296. This remarkable stone is re- 
ported to have found its way to Dunstaffnage from the plain 
of Luz, where it was the pillow of the patriarch Jacob while 
he dreamed his dream." 



154 NOTES 

1. 33. Colme-kill or Iona. An ancient burial place. Rogers, 
in his Monuments and Monumental Inscriptions of Scotland, 
Vol. II., p. 11, says : 

"Reilig Durain, the burial place of Oran, is the grand cem- 
etery of the island. In this place of sepulture were interred, 
according to an early tradition, forty kings of Scotland, two 
Irish monarchs, a French king, and two Irish princes of the 
.Norwegian race. The last kings who here found sepulchres 
were Duncan I., slain in 1034, and his assassin and successor, 
the celebrated Macbeth." 

Act III, Scene I 

The crime has been committed, and Macbeth rules in the 
place of the murdered king. Circumstances have made it pos- 
sible to lay the blame upon the sons of Duncan, and no one 
dares voice the suspicion which points towards Macbeth. The 
author now enters upon the most difficult part of his task — to 
portray the fearful retribution which crime works into the life 
and character of its perpetrators, and that without human 
instrumentality. Henceforth Macbeth' s career runs rapidly 
downward. He lives in an atmosphere of crime and dissimu- 
lation. He becomes hardened to all dictates of humanity, cruel 
and utterly corrupt. He hesitated at the first step, but he 
hesitates now no longer. He felt compassion for his first vic- 
tim, but now pity visits his heart no more. His wife no longer 
leads, and ceases soon even to influence him. Love for her, 
his noblest and purest passion, withers and blights before his 
merciless ambition, until he is able to hear of her death with 
merely an impatient, almost fretful, comment. The student 
should carefully trace each descending step of this unhappy 
man. 



NOTES 155 

1. 1. Banquo now proceeds to give evidence against himself. 
The Banquo of Act III. should be compared with the same 
character in Act I. Is there not more than a suspicion that 
he, too, is rapidly surrendering himself to his ambition ? 

1. 7. speeches shine. "Appears with all the luster of con- 
spicuous truth." — Johnson. 

1. 11. It is worthy of notice that with the possible exception 
of this scene, Macbeth nowhere assumes the "pomp and cir- 
cumstance" of the kingly state. All the insignia of office are 
wanting. He makes no display, and appears only as a noble 
and on terms of equality with his attendant courtiers. Is this 
on account of the native simplicity of his manners and his 
hatred of display, or is there a deeper reason ? 

1. 13. all-thing seems to be used adverbially in the sense of 
in every way. 

1. 14. solemn is used in the sense of ceremonious. There 
is little in the text to indicate that this was the coronation feast, 
although it may have been. There has been much discussion as 
to the length of time which has elapsed between the second and 
third acts. Is there anything in the text to shed light on this 
question '? 

1. 15. Let — Command. Inasmuch as Command must be 
antecedent of which, and hence substantive, Let should be 
changed to Lay or Set. If this is done highness must be read 
in the possessive case. 

1. 22. still : always. 

Macbeth suspects that Banquo is engaged in a conspiracy 
against him, and fears that this ride has some connection with 
it. Banquo notices it and in parrying Macbeth's inquiries only 
strengthens his suspicions. Perhaps he intends to do so. 



156 NOTES 

1. 33. As usual Macbeth cannot conceal the feeling which 
is uppermost in his mind. 

1. 34. therewithal, meaning in addition to this affair of his 
"bloody cousins." 

1. 42. Macbeth dismisses his Court from his presence 
under the pretence that their separation will render their re- 
union all the sweeter. That this is not his real reason the 
following passage shows. 

1. 44. while then, till then. 

1. 48. Compare this soliloquy with the one at the beginning 
of the seventh scene in Act I. Notice now the absence of all 
scruple, and also the different motive that impels him. 

1. 48. To be king is nothing, unless to be safely one. 

1. 56. See Antony and Cleopatra, II., iii., 18. Genius in its 
original meaning was a tutelary deity whose province it was to 
take care of an individual from the time of his birth, and was 
the ruling and protecting power over men, place, or things. 

1. 63. with was formerly used to denote the agent, where 
now we use by more generally. 

1. 65. filed : defiled. 

1. 68. eternal jewel undoubtedly means immortal soul, not 
" eternal salvation." 

1. 72. utterance, obsolete. From the French outrance, 
meaning to the last extremity. 

1. 72. two Murderers. It seems to be clear from what 
follows that these two were not assassins by profession but 
soldiers whose fortunes had in some way been injured by 
Banquo. 



NOTES 157 

1. 81. borne in hand, deluded by fair promises which he 
never intended to fulfil. 

1. 88. The reference is to Matt. v. 44. 

1. 94. Shoughs, a kind of shaggy dog. demi-wolves, a 
cross between dogs and wolves, clept, the preterite of clepe, 
meaning called, water-rugs, a kind of poodle. 

1. 95. valued file is a list with prices attached. 

1. 97. The housekeeper. The watch-dog or guardian of the 
house. 

1. 108. Here again Macbeth discloses his true and only 
motive. 

1. 110. bloody distance. That is, such a distance as enemies 
would stand from each other when engaged in deadly combat. 

1. 120. avouch it. That is, order that my will be accepted 
as justification of the deed. Avouch is from the French avouer, 
which means " to maintain the truth of a statement." 

1. 122. may not is probably equivalent to cannot or must 
not. 

wail his fall. Probably must should be understood here. 

1. 123. Who is used instead of the objective whom, a usage 
which was not uncommon in Shakespeare's time, and, indeed, 
has not entirely disappeared at the present time. To whom is 
reference made ? 

1. 130. This line is very obscure, and its interpretation is at 
best but a matter of conjecture. One editor would change with 
to by and make the word spy refer to the third murderer, who 
would notify them of the exact time. 

Another would interpret spy to mean espyal or discovery, thus 
making the phrase the exact discovery of the time. 



158 NOTES 

Another says: " Spy is here a noun, from the verb to spy, 
and signifies discovery by secrecy and artifice. ' I will acquaint 
you with the infallible discovery by secret and cunning exami- 
nation of the time of Banquo's coming by.' " 

Another proposes : "The perfect span of time, how soon it 
will be, the moment oii"t." 

Still another reads : " The precise time when you may espy 
him coming." 

1. 132. something from is equivalent to somewhat away or 
apart from. 

1. 132. always thought. A very elliptical expression which 
may be expanded into "It must always be borne in mind that 
I myself am to be cleared of all suspicion of complicity in the 
deed." 

1. 134. rubs. "In a game of bowls, when a bowl was di- 
verted from its course by an impediment, it was said to ' rub.' " 
— Clarendon. 

1. 140. straight, straightway. 



Scene II 

We are now given a glimpse of Lady Macbeth's feelings. 
She is no longer the resolute, defiant creature of the first two 
acts, but a shrinking woman who is already beginning to feel 
the pangs of remorse. The dark shadow of her crime envelops 
her whole life. She is no longer her husband's adviser, hardly 
his confidant. She is still wiser and more self-controlled than 
he, but her plaintive words at the beginning of this scene indi- 
cate both deep-seated misery and profound melancholy. 

11. 4-7. Strutt says: "These four lines seem to belong to 



NOTES 159 

Macbeth, who utters them as he enters, and at the conclusion 
is addressed by the lady, ' How now,' etc. The querulous spirit 
which they breathe is much more in character with Macbeth 
than with his wife." 

The student should study this passage carefully and see 
whether the above emendation is justified. Is it in keeping 
with Macbeth's mood at this time ? Does it not rather give us 
an insight into Lady Macbeth's real feelings, without which the 
sleep-walking scene and her death would be unintelligible ? 

1. 10. Using in the sense of entertaining. 

1. 12. She can no longer appeal to religion for solace, for 
she has put it behind her forever. She turns eagerly to philos- 
ophy, but evidently she finds there but empty words. 

1. 13. scotch'd. It is possible that Shakespeare had in 
mind the old superstition, that if a snake were cut in two, and 
the parts left near each other, they would grow together again. 
This seems to be hinted at by the context. It is better, how- 
ever, to understand scotch in its more common signification, — 
to wound slightly. 

"Cumberland . . . was resolved to kill, and not to scotch, 
the snake of the Jacobite insurrection." — McCarthy's Four 
Georges, II., 226. 

1. 16. disjoint. It is quite probable that become should be 
inserted before disjoint. 

both the worlds. This world and the next. 

1. 19. He is no longer striving for honor and position, but 
peace and freedom from fear. Notice the means which he is 
now ready to employ. Also contrast his state of mind while 
preparing for the murder of Banquo with that in which he pre- 
pared for the murder of the king. 



160 NOTES 

1. 28. Macbeth is evidently no better dissembler than when 
his wife said : " Your face, my thane, is as an open book, where 
men may read strange matters." 

1. 31. Present him eminence. Do him the highest honors. 
It should be observed that Lady Macbeth, as yet, knows noth- 
ing of her husband's plot against Banquo. He has learned his 
lesson well, and he no longer needs her to spur him on to des- 
perate deeds. 

1. 32. The general purport of the passage is to the intent 
that their royal tenure was unsafe as long as they must flatter, 
and pretend to give honor to, a man whom they feared. Mac- 
beth is evidently testing his wife to see if she would not suggest 
the necessity of putting Banquo out of the way. And when she 
seems to sanction his suggestion, expressed so covertly, he 
triumphantly discloses the fact that a horrible deed is to be 
done, but refuses to gratify her curiosity further. 

1. 34. visards, the same as vizors. 

1. 38. nature's copy. "We are told that "man is made in 
the image of God." With this in mind, it is easy to see how 
he may be called nature's copy. Copy may mean, however, 
the deed by which man holds his tenure of life. 

1. 38. eterne. Cf. Hamlet, II., 2 : 

" On Mar's armour forged for proof eterne." 

1. 41. The dim recesses of cloisters were the favorite haunts 
of bats. 

1. 42. In zoology, a shard is the hard wing-case of a beetle. 
Cf. Longfellow's Hiawatha, XII. : 

" And the roof of bark upon them 
As the shining shards of beetles." 



NOTES 161 

1. 45. Macbeth no longer needs her help and inspiration, 
but why does he desire to keep her in ignorance of his design ? 

1. 46. seeling. To seel is to close the eyes by drawing a 
thread through them. This was done to hawks, to make them 
tractable. 

1. 49. great bond. Is this the bond or promise which the 
weird sisters made to Banquo ? 

Cf. Richard HI., IV., iv., 77. Cymbeline V., iv., 27. 

1. 51. Rooky wood. Probably meaning only a wood in- 
habited by rooks, although the word has a provincial meaning 
of foggy or misty. 

Of this passage Mrs. Kemble says : 

" We see the violet-colored sky. We feel the soft, intermitting 
wind of evening. We hear the solemn lullaby of the dark fir- 
forest, the homeward flight of the bird suggests the sweetest 
images of rest and peace ; and coupled and contrasting with the 
gradual falling of the dim veil of twilight over the placid face of 
nature, the remote horror of the ' deed of fearful note ' about to 
desecrate the solemn repose of the approaching night gives to 
these harmonious and lovely lines a wonderful effect of mingled 
terror and beauty." 

1. 53. night's black agents. Such as murderers, robbers, 
wild beasts, etc. 

1. 50. go with me. Evidently this is not an invitation for 
her to leave the stage with him, but rather to tread with him 
still further the dark road of crime upon which they have both 
begun their course. 

Scene III 

It has been suggested that the third murderer was Macbeth, 
and there is some reason to believe that this was the case. The 

M 



162 NOTES 

student should watch for points in the text which tend to confirm 
or disprove this hypothesis. 

11. 2-4. This passage may be read: " We need not distrust 
him, since he gives us our instructions and tells us what we have 
to do exactly according to directions." 

1. 9. Banquo calls for a light because he and Fleance intend 
to take a short cut to the castle by a footpath while their groom 
takes the horse around by the road. 

1. 18. Banquo's death must take place on the stage in order 
that the audience may be prepared for the appearance of the 
ghost. 

I. 18. Fleance escapes. Malone says: " Fleance, after the 
assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where he married 
the daughter of the prince of that country, by whom he had a 
son, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, 
and from thence assumed the name of Walter Steward. From 
him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended, in com- 
pliment to whom our author has chosen to describe Banquo, 
who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of 
Duncan, as innocent of that crime." 

Scene IV 

The feast has been long delayed by the absence of Macbeth. 
Where was he ? 

II. 1-2. at first And last. All, of whatever degree, and 
whether they come early or late, are heartily welcome. 

1. 3. It is significant that Macbeth keeps himself as much 
retired as possible, and does not even seat himself at the head 
of the table. 



NOTES 163 

1. 5. Our hostess keeps her state. That is, continues in her 
chair of state at the head of the table. This was a common use 
of the word state at that time, but it has now become obsolete. 

1. 6. require. In the sense of ask. 

1. 11. anon. Macbeth has caught sight of the murderer, 
and desires to dismiss him before drinking the measure. 

1. 14. 'Tis better thee without than he within. The most 
obvious and commonly accepted meaning of this line is : " It is 
better outside of you than inside of him " ; but Macbeth has not 
yet descended to such depths as to be capable of such coarseness 
and brutality. It seems better to understand : " It is better to 
have you, his murderer, outside the door than to have him 
within." 

1. 15. Is he dispatch'd? If this question is asked in good 
faith, Macbeth could hardly have been the third murderer. The 
death of Banquo was a matter of vital importance to him ; and 
if he had been ignorant of the outcome of his plot he would 
have asked the fateful question at once without interposing any 
remarks. Again, the question sounds hollow, and one cannot 
read it without feeling that it is a pretence, and that he already 
knows that Banquo is dead and that Fleance has escaped. If 
he knows it he must have been present, since evidently the 
murderers haven't seen him before. This feeling is strengthened 
by the flippant tone of his next speech. 

1. 21. fit, disordered mind. Notwithstanding his crime the 
escape of Fleance has completely frustrated his designs. This 
passage does not necessarily indicate that he was not aware of 
Fleance's escape before. In his haste to return to the castle, 
and realizing that he was keeping his court waiting, he had had 



164 NOTES 

no time to think what this escape meant to him, and now for 
the first time its full significance dawned upon him. 

1. 29. worm, from Anglo-Saxon wyrm, meaning primarily 
a serpent or a dragon. Its present meaning is secondary. 

1. 33. the feast is sold. "That feast can only be con- 
sidered as sold, not given, during which the entertainers omit 
such courtesies as may assure their guests that it is given with 
welcome." — Dyce. 

1. 35. to feed, that is, eating merely to supply nature's de- 
mands. 

1. 36. From thence : away from home. 

1. 37. Meeting. Does Shakespeare intend this as a pun ? 
How was meat pronounced in his time ? 

1. 41. It will be noticed that no plate has been laid, nor 
place reserved, for Banquo. For when the ghost enters there 
is but one vacant seat, and that is the one in which Macbeth is 
about to seat himself. 

1. 46. The table's full. For the first time Macbeth notices 
that the chair which had been reserved for him was occupied, 
and by whom ? By no one else than the ghost of the man 
whose name he had just used with the boldest dissimulation. 

The ghost which enters here has been the subject of much 
controversy ; first, as to whether it was really a ghost or only 
an hallucination ; and, secondly, as to its personality — whether 
it w r as the ghost of Banquo or of Duncan. 

It may be objected to the first question that ghosts cannot 
have an objective existence, although there are many who still 
believe in them as actual entities. But in this case it is neces- 
sary to study only Macbeth\s mental state to become convinced 



NOTES 165 

that Banquo's ghost was subjective, an hallucination, which his 
overwrought mind was unable to distinguish as such. The 
mysterious dagger had been such an hallucination, and he had 
easily recognized it ; but now the situation is changed, and his 
overwrought imagination, aided by the brain exhaustion re- 
sulting from his sleepless nights, places before him in the 
empty chair a phantasm which is as real to him as any of his 
guests. This view is further sanctioned by the fact that none 
of the others see the ghost, not even Lady Macbeth. In this 
connection study Lady Macbeth's response, beginning with 
1.60. 

The second question is more difficult. There is much inter- 
nal evidence to support both views. "Thou canst not say I 
did it," points directly to Banquo. " If charnel-houses and 
our graves must send those that we bury back," etc., would 
seem to indicate Duncan, since Banquo is not yet buried. 
Banquo is again referred to in 1. 81, " With twenty mortal 
murders on their crowns." When the ghost reenters Macbeth 
exclaims, "Avaunt ! and quit my sight ! Let earth hide thee ! 
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold." Would this 
surpassing horror be produced by any less terrible hallucination 
than that of the ghost of the murdered king ? There is much 
more internal evidence which the student should search for 
and collate. 

It should be said that the stage directions in the original 
folios are so faulty that they are not entitled to much consider- 
ation. 

11. 53-58. Lady Macbeth once more intervenes to shield her 
husband from suspicion. The readiness with which she meets 
such emergencies is worthy of notice. 

1. 57. You shall offend him. Elizabethan authors use shall 



166 XOTES 

to denote inevitable futurity. Here it means, "You are sure 
to offend him.'' 

1. 58. Are you a man ? What follows seems to be unnoticed 
by the company. It is possible that Lady Macbeth takes her 
husband aside and talks with him in a lower tone of voice, yet 
his own half-frantic exclamations could hardly have been uttered 
in a subdued tone. 

1. 60. proper stuff : mere nonsense. 

1. 64. Impostors (compared) to true fear. 

1.76. gentle weal. Clarendon says : " Gentle is here to be 
taken prophetically : ' Ere humane statute purged the common 
weal and made it gentle. 1 " 

1. 85. muse : to wonder or be amazed. 

1. 92. all to all : all (love, health, and general joy) to all 
present. 

1. 95. speculation is used in the sense of intelligence which 
shines out through the eyes. 

1. 96. Lady Macbeth is out of patience as well as appre- 
hensive of the effect of her husband's insane words upon those 
present. For him she has no further expostulations, for she 
knows they are useless. Her one thought now is to get rid of 
the company before he commits himself too far. 

1. 101. Hyrcan tiger. The name Hyrcania was given to the 
country south of the Caspian Sea. 

1. 105. inhabit. Many editors read inhibit, but it is better 
to retain the original word, which may mean here, " If through 
fear I stay at home.'" 1 

1. 112. You make me strange, etc. Evidently Macbeth bf 1 - 



NOTES 167 

lieves that the whole company have seen the ghost, and he is 
led to doubt his own courage when he sees them unmoved by 
the horror which has unmanned him. 

1. 122. It will have blood. Macbeth remorsefully feels that 
the murders of which he has been guilty will not go unpunished. 

1. 125. maggot-pies, magpies. 

1. 127. Night and morning press so hard upon each other 
that they are almost contending, which is which. 

1. 128. It appears that Macbeth had invited Macduff to the 
feast and he had refused to come. Macbeth here suddenly 
changes the subject and asks his wife what she thinks about 
Macduff's refusal. 

1. 129. Did you send to him, sir? This appellation shows 
that Lady Macbeth has become subjugated to her husband. 
She is no longer the bold, dauntless spirit urging him on to 
deeds of blood, but she has become his timid, shrinking ser- 
vant, and she evidently surmises at once why Macduff has been 
summoned. 

1. 111. Recall the prophecy which rang in his ears when he 
came out of Duncan's death-chamber. 

1. 142. self-abuse, self-deception. 

1. 143. initiate fear, the fear of a beginner. 



Scene V 

1. 1. Hecate. It seems rather out of place to bring Hecate 
down to the level of common Scottish witches and to mix her 
up in their incantations, yet Shakespeare has not been the only 
one guilty of this atrocity, 



168 NOTES 

angerly, a shortened form of anger-like, cf. manly. 

1. 2. beldams. This word was originally a term of respect- 
ful address, meaning a good or beautiful lady, hut it finally 
came to have quite the opposite meaning, of an ugly old woman, 
a hag. 

1. 7. close, in the sense of secret. Cf. Richard III., IV., 2 : 

" Knowest thou not any whom corrupting gold 
Would tempt into a close exploit of death? " 

1. 15. Acheron. The original Acheron was a river in Greece. 
The name was given to one of the rivers in Hades. Clarke says : 
"The witches are poetically made to give this name to some 
foul tarn or gloomy pool in the neighborhood of Macbeth's 
castle, where they habitually assemble." 

1. 24. drop profound probably means a drop which was 
possessed of powerful qualities. The moon was supposed to 
exert a strong and mystic influence upon the earth. 

1. 26. magic sleights means magic arts. 

1. 32. security, that is, a fancied security. 

Scene VI 

This scene, which at first seems to be disconnected from the 
action of the play, is introduced to show the state of public 
opinion and to give the audience a hint of the various forces 
which are concentrating against Macbeth. 

It is difficult to see why a nameless lord should be introduced 
here. Johnson conjectures that the original copy read Lenox 
and An., the abbreviation for Angus, for which the transcriber 
substituted the present reading. 



NOTES 169 



1. 3. borne : conducted. So in 1. 17. 

1. 8. Who cannot want the thought. The sense evidently 
requires the substitution of can for cannot, and some editors 
have made this change. A writer in the Edinburgh Review, 
(July, 1869), however, says : " The passage as it stands is per- 
fectly good sense, and perfectly good English of Shakespeare's 
day, as it still remains perfectly good Northern English or Low- 
land Scotch of oar own day. In these dialects the word want, 
especially when construed with negative particles, has precisely 
the meaning which the critics insist the sense requires. If a 
farmer in the North of England, or the Scotch Lowlands, send 
to borrow a neighbor's horse, and receives a negative reply, it 
would probably be conveyed in some such form as, ' He says 
he cannot want the horse to-day,' that is, he cannot do without 
the horse ; he must have the horse for his own use. . . . This 
use of the verb was not uncommon among the writers of Shake- 
speare's day." 

1. 10. fact. "Shakespeare continually uses the word in a 
bad sense, as of an evil deed. Nowhere does he use it in the 
sense of reality as opposed to fiction." — Delics. 

1. 19. an't. This use of and in the sense of if is archaic. 
Used in this sense it has been generally distinguished by writing 
it an or an\ but this has never required a distinction in 
pronunciation. 

1. 21. from, in the sense of in consequence of. 

1. 40. " Sir, not I." The construction is : "And the cloudy 
messenger turns me his back with an absolute ' Sir, not 1 ' 
(received in answer from Macduff), and hums, as who should 
say," etc. — Dyce. 



170 XOTES 

1. 41. cloudy: ominous, foreboding. 

me : equivalent to the dative of reference in Latin. 

Act IV, Scene I 

Again the witches appear as instruments to influence the 
career of Macbeth at an important crisis of his life. He has 
now abandoned all shame, and openly consults them in regard 
to his future career. From their specious predictions he gains 
new confidence, while the phenomena. which they exhibit inspire 
awe, and indicate a power and prescience such as the reader has 
not previously ascribed to them. Yet, notwithstanding this, 
they exhibit such an utter barrenness of all virtue, such total 
depravity, that Macbeth, who appears as a partner in their evil 
designs, loses what remnant of sympathy has hitherto been 
accorded him, and all are ready to see him crushed, — indeed 
there is 'an eager longing that the retribution, which his crimes 
so richly deserve, be overwhelming. He has apparently reached 
the bottom level of his course. His aspirations have no single 
element of virtue left in them, and his existence stretches out 
before him a dreary waste of crime, at the end of which is sure 
disaster. It is not necessary to study this ghostly scene critically. 
It is designed to teach a moral lesson, which even a careless 
reader can hardly miss. 

1. 3. Harpier : probably a misspelling or a misprint for 
harpy. 

1. 8. Swelter' d venom. " There is a paper by Dr. Davy in 
the Philosophical Transactions of 1826, in which it is shown 
that the toad is venomous, and moreover that sweltered venom 
is peculiarly proper, the poison lying diffused over the body 
immediately under the skin. This is the second instance in 



NOTES 171 

this play of Shakespeare's minute exactness in his natural 
history." — Hunter. 

1. 12. "Shakespeare so weaves his incantations as to cast 
a spell upon the mind, and force its acquiescence in what he 
represents. Explode as we may the witchcraft which he de- 
scribes, there is no exploding the witchcraft of his description, 
the effect springing not so much from what he borrows as from 
his own ordering thereof." — Hudson. 

1. 43. "Black spirits," etc. This song is given in Middle- 
ton's play, The Witch, V., ii., as follows: 

" Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray, 
Mingle, mingle, mingle, ye that mingle may." 

1.44. pricking. It was an ancient superstition" that any 
sudden pain in the body which could not be accounted for fore- 
boded some event in the future. 

1. 59. germins. This word has been variously read, as ger- 
maine, germain, german, germen, and germirts. How would 
these different readings modify the meaning ? 

1. 65. farrow : from Anglo-Saxon fearh, a little pig, or a 
litter of pigs. 

1. 68. First Apparition. The armed head is supposed to 
represent the head of Macbeth, which was doomed to be cut 
off by Macduff. 

1. 76. Second Apparition. The bloody child represents 
Macduff, who was born untimely. Observe that this second 
apparition was more potent than the first. 

1. 87. Third Apparition. This apparition undoubtedly rep- 
resents Malcolm, who was to succeed Macbeth. See Malcolm's 
command to his soldiers, V., iv. 



172 NOTES 

1. 94. Notice how artfully Macbeth's confidence in bis future 
safety has been strengthened. His doom inevitably awaits him, 
and towards it all the currents of his life are tending ; yet the 
witches have so blinded his eyes that he will not see it until 
it is upon him. 

1. 121. The two-fold balls represent the two independent 
kingdoms of England and Scotland, which were to be united 
under one sovereignty, in 1613, by James I. The treble 
sceptres may refer to the union with • Ireland, which was to 
occur in the more remote future. 

1. 127. Notice the fiendish sarcasm of this passage. 

1. 135. Macbeth has become so hardened that he receives 
messengers of state at this interview without a blush of apology. 

1. 150. This passage is inserted in order that there may be 
no doubt as to Macbeth's agency in the murder of Macduff's 
unfortunate family. 

Scene II 

This pathetic scene is introduced to show the depths of mer- 
ciless cruelty into which Macbeth has fallen, and to deprive 
him of the last vestige of pity which up to this moment has 
lingered in the minds of the audience. His sin has now brought 
forth in him its perfect fruit, and his depravity has become 
complete and hideous. No more powerful picture has ever been 
drawn of a man in whose breast the last spark of humanity has 
been extinguished. 

1. 4. traitors. His flight was apparent evidence of his 
treason. 

1. 17. fits o' the season. "What befits the season." — 
Steevens. 



NOTES 173 

"We still say figuratively, 'the temper of the times.'" — 
Singer. 

" The critical conjunctures of the times. The figure is taken 
from the fits of an intermittent fever." — Clarendon. 

Study this passage and decide which one of these interpreta- 
tions best fits the purpose of the author. 

11. 19-20. "Our fear makes us credit every rumor, yet we 
have not what we/ear." 

1. 22. Each way and move. This passage is very obscure. 
Is it better to make move a verb connected by and with float, or 
to make it a noun similarly connected with way ? 

1. 47. swears and lies. Swears allegiance and perjures 
himself. In 1. 51 these words are used in their ordinary sense. 

1. 65. state of honour. This seems to refer not only to her 
position as mistress of the castle, but also to her kindly and 
virtuous disposition. 

1. 71. To do worse is evidently to let them remain unwarned. 
It is possible that this messenger is one of the murderers dis- 
patched by Macbeth who has outstripped his companions to give 
this warning. If this should be the case what change in the 
interpretation of this passage would become necessary ? 

1. 83. shag-ear'd was nothing more than an abusive epithet 
which was in common use. 

Scene III 

This scene serves two purposes, to show the increasing detes- 
tation in which Macbeth is held by the people, and also to show 
how Macduff is urged on to a revenge which shall not be sat- 
isfied until Macbeth is overthrown. Malcolm has not, hitherto, 



174 NOTES 

appeared as a strong character, hence this scene is necessary 
also to show him in his true nature and to gain the sympathies 
of the audience in his behalf. Clarendon says : " The poet no 
doubt felt that this scene was needed to supplement the meagre 
parts assigned to Malcolm and Macduff. "' Does it seem to be 
written merely to fill in ? 

1. 15. deserve. The folios read discerne or discern, so that 
the passage would read : " You may see something to your ad- 
vantage by betraying me." Would not the same meaning be 
better expressed by retaining deserve ? 

and wisdom. This is probably an elliptical expression with 
it is omitted. 

1. 19. recoil, used in the sense of yield or give icay. 

1. 20. imperial charge. Is charge used in the sense of com- 
mission, or does the figure refer to the charge of an imperial 
army ? 

I. 21. The sense is, "If you are virtuous my thoughts can- 
not make you otherwise." 

II. 26-28. Malcolm wonders that Macduff has fled, leaving 
his family in the power of Macbeth, and from this fact he fears 
treachery at Macduff's hands. 

1. 50. Malcolm shows his youth and inexperience in his 
bungling attempts to test Macduff's loyalty. 

1. 71. Convey. Collier reads enjoy. Convey may have the 
meaning of to manage secretly. Cf. King Lear, I., 2: "I will 
convey the business as I shall find means." From the sense 
which appears the better reading ? 

1. 86. summer-seeming. Referring to the summer's heat, 
which burns for a time and passes away, equivalent to transient. 



NOTES 175 

1. 99. Uproar. This word is nowhere else used as a verb. 
Is it likely that uproot was intended ? 

1. 111. Died, etc. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 31. 

I. 143. Edward the Confessor was the first English king to 
claim that he was possessed of the healing touch. The power 
was claimed by succeeding sovereigns as late as Queen Anne. 

1. 177. In what sense is well used ? 

1. 215. He has no children. This may refer to Macbeth. 
If so, the inference is either that Macbeth had no children or 
his feelings as a father would have kept him from the deed, or 
that since he has no children Macduff cannot wreak revenge 
upon him through them. But the reference may be to Mal- 
colm, and if so merely means that since he has no children he 
cannot understand a father's grief. Which of these interpre- 
tations best accords with Macduff's grief ? Which is the most 
vigorous and natural ? 

1. 220. Notice the effect of this terrible news upon Macduff. 
At first he does not comprehend it, then he is overcome with 
grief, and finally comes the overwhelming desire for vengeance. 

1. 225. naught in the sense of bad. Macduff realizes that 
they were slain on account of Macbeth's hatred of himself, and 
not because of any demerits of their own. 

1. 239. This is a conflict which the powers of heaven are 
waging against all that is evil, personified in Macbeth, and 
Malcolm refers to himself and his friends as the instruments of 
the heavenly powers. 

Act V, Scene I 

This scene is probably the most powerful and artistic in the 
whole play. The supreme punishment which is to be meted 



176 NOTES 

out to Macbeth and his wife is not death, but the more fearful 
pangs of remorse. True, they are to die, but death comes 
rather as a relief than as a punishment. Nowhere else in all 
literature is the terrible anguish of a guilty conscience, keenly 
alive to its own sin, so pathetically portrayed. It must be 
remembered that neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth is aware 
that their instrumentality in the death of Duncan is known. 
With strange fatuity they believe that the secret is still theirs 
alone. 

After the stormy close of the last scene the quiet atmosphere 
of this chamber and the subdued conversation of the gentle- 
woman and physician impart a feeling of horror which deepens 
as the action progresses. 

1. 6. No doubt a reminiscence of the letter she had received 
from Macbeth. 

1. 26. Eecall her invocation to thick night in Act I., Sc. 5. 
Now she dares not stay in the dark. 

1. 32. When the blood was really on her hands she had 
said : " A little water clears us of this deed." 

1. 47. She knew nothing of the murder of Lady Macduff in 
advance. In what sense was she a sharer in the guilt of that 
crime ? 

1. 70. She here goes back to the banquet scene where the 
ghost of Banquo appeared. 

1. 71. The physician now perceives the cause of her per- 
turbation. 

Scene II 

1. 5. mortified man. Probably the man who had abandoned 
himself to despair. 



NOTES 177 

1. 15. cause. Some editors read course. Which is pref- 
erable ? 

1. 18. minutely. This may be either an adjective or an 
adverb. Which is the more natural construction ? 

1. 27. medicine refers to Malcolm, which may be under- 
stood as the antecedent of him. 

1. 30. sovereign may mean both royal and remedial. How 
should it be understood here ? 



Scene III 

1. 3. taint with fear. Taint is used intransitively, " I can- 
not become tainted. 11 

1. 15. patch. A fool was often called a patch on account 
of his motley dress. 

1. 19. The Seytons of Louch were the hereditary armor- 
bearers of the Kings of Scotland. 

1. 21. cheer. Read chair, in sense of throne, by many 
editors. Study the passage and decide which is better. 

1. 22. Is it difficult to see how his way of life could fall into 
the sear, the yellow leaf ? Would it be better to change way 
to May ? Can the reading of the text be justified and explained ? 

1. 24. old age. Does this expression give any indication of 
the time which has passed since the murder of Duncan ? 

1. 40. Notice that there is not a trace of genuine sympathy 
in all that Macbeth says about his wife. 

1. 49. send out. An incomplete sentence, no doubt refer- 
ring to his previous order to Seyton to send out more horses. 



178 NOTES 

Scene IV 

1. 2. Possibly referring to his father's murder, or to the 
spies mentioned in Act III., Sc. 4, as prowling about private 
chambers and listening at key -holes. 

1. 3. Birnam is a high hill near Dunkeld, twelve miles from 
Dunsinane, and not far from Perth. 

1. 11. This passage is very obscure, and has been given 
several different interpretations. It may mean that where an 
opportunity was given both nobles and common people have 
deserted him. Possibly it should read ' ' For where there is 
advantage to be gained." 

1. 15. "In order that our opinions may be just, let them 
await the event that will test their truth." 

Scene V 

1. 5. forced. Reinforced by defections from Macbeth's 
followers. 

1. 17. Meaning that now is an inopportune time to die. The 
future would have brought a fitter time. Arrowsmith construes 
differently. He says : "So far is Macbeth from regarding one 
time more convenient than another that the whole tenor of his 
subsequent remarks evinces his conviction to be that it makes 
no odds at what point in the dull round of days a man's life 
may terminate. If she had not died now, reasons he, she 
would have died hereafter ; there would have been a time 
when such tidings must have been brought, — such a tale told." 

1. 22. Hunter says: "There is something in this passage 
partaking of the desperation of the thane's position, and per- 
haps intended to show what thoughts possess a mind like his, 



KOTES 179 

burdened with heavy guilt, and having some reason to think 
that retribution is at hand." 

It is to be noticed that the announcement of his wife's death 
has hardly interrupted the strain of his moralizing, and further- 
more that his thoughts are entirely upon himself. 

1. 40. The word cling means here to shrink. 

Scene VIII 
1. 34. In an old stage copy of this play Macbeth falls within 
sight of the audience, and gives utterance to the following 
words with his last breath : 

" 'Tis done! the scene of life will quickly close, 
Ambition's vain delusive dreams are fled, 
And now I wake to darkness, guilt, and horror; 
I cannot bear it! Let me shake it off — 
It will not be ; my soul is clogged with blood. 
I cannot rise ! I dare not ask for mercy — 
It is too late, hell drags me down ; I sink, 
I sink, —my soul is lost forever! Oh! — Oh!" [Dies. 
" In the park of Belmont a tumulus called Belliduff is asso- 
ciated with the tradition that here Macduff slew Macbeth, while 
a whinstone nodule of twenty tons' weight, about a mile dis- 
tant, is known as Macbeth's stone. According to history Mac- 
beth was slain at Lunphanan in Kincardineshire." — Rogers. 
Hallam in his introduction to the Literature of Europe says : 
" The majority of readers, I believe, assign to Macbeth . . . 
the preeminence among the works of Shakespeare ; many, how- 
ever, would rather name Othello, and a few might prefer Lear 
to either. The great epic drama, as the first may be called, 
deserves, in my own judgment, the post it has attained, as 
being, in the language of Drake, ' the greatest effort of our 
author's genius, the most sublime and impressive drama which 
the world has ever beheld.' " 



INDEX TO NOTES 



Acheron, 168. 
Addressed, 144. 
Adhere, 139. 
Aleppo, 123. 
All-thing, 155. 
"All to all," 166. 
Always thought, 158. 
Angerly, 168. 
Anon, 163. 
An't, 169. 

Apparitions, The, 171. 
" Are you a man ? " 166. 
" Aroint thee," 122. 
" At first and last," 162. 
Avouch it, 157. 

Banquo, 125. 
Banquo's death, 162. 
Banquo's ghost, 164. 
Beast, 138. 
Beldams, 168. 
Bellona, 121. 
Birnam, 178. 
Black spirits, 171. 
Bloody, 119. 
Bloody distance, 157. 
Borne, 169. 
Borne in haiid, 157. 
Both the worlds, 159. 



Cat, 138. 

Careless, 128. 

Cause, 177. 

Cheer, 177. 

"Choke their art," 119. 

Clear, 136. 

Cleave, 141. 

Cling, 179. 

Clock, 140. 

Close, 168. 

Cloudy, 170. 

"Come in time," 146, 

Colme-kill, 154. 

Composition, 121. 

Compunctious, 131. 

Convey, 174. 

Convince, 139. 

Corporal, 126. 

Crack, 120. 

Curtained sleep, 143. 

Deserve, 174. 

" Did you send to him, sir ? " 167. 

Died, 175. 

Disdaining fortune," 119. 
Disjoint, 159. 
Dollars, 121. 
Drawn dagger, 142. 
Drop profound, 168. 
181 



182 



INDEX TO NOTES 



Dudgeon, 142. 

" Each way and move," 173. 
English Tailor, 14(5. 
Eternal Jewel, 156. 
Eterne, 160. 

Fact, 169. 

Faculties, 136. 

" Fair is foul," 118. 

Farmer, 146. 

Farrow, 171. 

" Feast is cold," 164. 

Feed, To, 164. 

Feverous, 148. 

Filed, 15i>. 

First Apparition, 171. 

Fit, 1(53. 

Fitso' the season, 172. 

Fleance, 125, 162. 

Forbid, 123. 

Forced, 178. 

From, 1(59. 

From thence, 164. 

Function, 127. 

Furbished, 120. 

Gallowglasses, 119. 
Gentle senses, 132. 
Gentle weal, 166. 
Germins, 171. 
Golden round, 130. 
Golgotha, 120. 
Gouts, 142. 
" Go with me," 161. 



Great bond, 161. 
Great doom's image, 148. 
Green and pale, 137. 
Growing, 129. 
Guilt, 145. 

Hakluyt's Voyages (quoted) , 123. 

Hark, 144. 

Harpier, 170. 

Healing touch, 175. 

Hecate, 143, 167. 

" He has no children," 175. 

Here, 136. 

Hereafter, 131. 

" Hid in an auger-hole," 151. 

Home, 127. 

Housekeeper, The, 157. 

Hurley-burley, 118. 

Hyrcan tiger, 166. 

" If 'twere done when 'tis done," 

etc., 135. 
Ignorant, 131. 
Imperial charge, 174. 
Impostors, 166. 
Inch, 121. 
Inhabit, 166. 
Initiate fear, 167. 
Insane root, 126. 
" Is he dispatched ? " 163. 
" Is thy master stirring? " 147. 
" It will have blood," 167. 

Jump, 136. 
Jutty, 133. 



INDEX TO NOTES 



183 



Kerns, 119. 
Knowings, 152. 

Lady Macbeth's death, 178. 

Lady Macbeth's faint, 150. 

" Left you unattended," 148. 

Let — command, 155. 

Limited, 148. 

Line, 127. 

Lord's anointed, 148. 

Macbeth's death, 179. 
Maggot-pies, 167. 
Magic sleights, 168. 
" Make us mad," 144. 
Manly readiness, 151. 
May, 157. 
Me, 170. 
Medicine, 176. 
Meeting, 164. 
Metaphysical, 130. 
Mine, 128. 
Minions, 153. 
Minutely, 176. 
Mortal, 131. 
Mortified man, 176. 
Mousing owl, 153. 
Muse, 166. 

Napkins, 146. 
"Nature's copy, 160. 
Naught, 175. 

Night's black agents, 161. 
" Not yet," 147. 



Obscure, 148. 

Offices, 141. 

Old, 146. 

Old age, 177. 

One, 145. 

" Or in rain," 117. 

" Our hostess keeps her state," 

163. 
Our tears, 151. 
Outrun, 149. 
Owe, 126. 

Pauser, 149. 

Pays, 128. 

Peerless kinsman, 130. 

Penthouse lid, 123. 

Physics, 147. 

Porter of Hell Gate, 146. 

Ports, 123. 

Prediction of noble having, 125. 

Present grace, 125. 

" Present him eminence," 160. 

Present horror, 143. 

Pricking, 171. 

Primrose way, 146. 

Prince of Cumberland, 129. 

Proof, 121. 

Proper stuff, 166. 

Prophesying, 148. 

Proportion, 128. 

Rapt, 125. 
Raven, The, 131. 
Ravin up, 153. 
Recoil, 174. 



184 



IXDEX TO NOTES 



Require, 163. 

Rest, 129. 

Rooky wood, 161. 

Royal hope, 125. 

Rubs, 158. 

Rump-fed ronyon, 122. 

Quell, 129. 

Safe toward, 128. 

Scone, 153. 

Scotch'd, 159. 

Second apparition, 171. 

Security, 108. 

Seeling, 161. 

Seem, 130. 

Seems, 120. 

Self -abuse, 167. 

" Send out," 177. 

Sergeant, 119-120. 

Sewer, 134. 

Shag-eared, 173. 

Shard, 160. 

Shipman's card, 123. 

Shoughs, 157. 

Showed, 119. 

Sieve, 123. 

Sightless, 131. 

Silver skin, 149. 

" Sir, not I," 164. 

Sleave, 145. 

Sleep-walking scene, 175-17G. 

Solemn, 155. 

Something from, 158. 

Sooth, 120. 



Sore, 152. 

Sovereign, 177. 

Speculation, 166. 

" Speeches shine," 155. 

Spongy, 139. 

Spy, 157. 

State of honour, 173. 

Straight, 158. 

Still, 155. 

Strides, 143. 

Summer-seeming, 174. 

Surcease, 136. 

" Swears and lies," 173. 

Sweltered venom, 170. 

Tail, 123. 

" Taint with fear," 177. 

Temple-haunting, 132. 

Thane, 120. 

" The sear, the yellow leaf," 177. 

"The table's full," 164. 

" There's daggers," etc, 151. 

There withal, 156. 

Third apparition, 171. 

Tiger, 123. 

" 'Tis better thee without," etc., 

163. 
" To do worse," etc., 173. 
To make's, 150. 
Towering, 153. 
Traitors, 172. 
Travelling lamp, 152. 
Trifled, 152. 
Twofold balls, 172. 
Two murderers, 156. 



INDEX TO NOTES 



ISo 



Unmannerly breached, 149. 
Uproar, 175. 
Using, 159. 
Utterance, 156. 

Valued file, 157. 
Visards, 160. 

"Wait his fall," 157. 
Watch, 143. 
"We fail," 139. 
Weird Sisters, 124. 
" While then," 156. 



Who, 157. 

" Who cannot want the thought. 

169. 
Witches, 123-124. 
With, 156. 
Words, 143. 
Worm, 164. 
Would, 137. 



Yield, 133. 

" You make me strange," 165. 

" You shall offend him," 165. 



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